Beached
by Stelera Kinsman
Summary: <html><head></head>Deidara, a peaceful merman of the Akatsuki pod finds himself washed ashore one day with no way of returning to the ocean.  Who would come to his aid but everyone's favorite hanyou, Inuyasha!  Yaoi MxM Lemmon</html>
1. Prologue

Prologue-

The eastern Pacific Ocean; a beautiful expanse of glittering blue saline topped with the white crests on the rolling brine. The sun shone down on the white sands of the western coast of Honshu's Sagami Bay, 1528. Overhead, shearwaters and kamchatka gulls circled over the churning ocean, searching for fish near to the surface to be snatched up and carried off to their nestlings squatting on the cliffs by the coast. Above the water, the beauty was pristine and vast, but below the water, the tempered flow from the Kuroshio Current kept the waters naturally warm year round and lead to vast biodiversity in the region. Creatures of all shapes and colors navigated the rich waters of that bay; creatures that have long since died off or disappeared into the vastness of mythological history. You may write it all off as legends passed down and losing their grip on reality with every generation, but in truth, the 14th century was home to many great, powerful and noble creatures.

The land back then was thick with demon life; the forests running wild with plentiful game and unnaturally powerful beasts and men. The seas of the era were chock full of elegant aquatic life, but also were home to ocean-faring reptilian monsters like from old epics. Still with all the pristine majesty and raw power that pulsed from the earth in the ancient times, no creature was more magnificent than the ningyo, merfolk to the modern world. The ningyo were creatures with the upper bodies of men and women and the tails of fish native to the region and commonly dorsal fins that stretched the lengths of their spines. Many were plain, though marvelous in their own right, most commonly resembling the sea bass, green in color and generally spiny in the dorsal region. Some were vicious having the characteristics and lower body appearance of dogfish, scorpionfish and even sharks. Still others where more wondrous than the rest, with long swooping dorsal fins, colorful scales and flowing tails that were the envy of the sea.

Many fishermen of the time would be visited by the ningyo, especially the further out their boats sailed. It was not uncommon for a crew to return missing a member who had dove overboard after a maiden of the bay, earning the more elegant women the name "siren." Unlike the stories that have been stretched to this day, the sirens did not have the ability to coax men overboard with their lovely singing. Though singing was a vast part of the ningyo's culture, they were completely aquatic, their voices being only able to sound correctly under the surface. Above the water, if a merwoman were to attempt to serenade the crew of a passing vessel, her voice would screech and moan and be more likely to drive them overboard if only to escape the sound of her wails. All the same, sometimes the beautiful creatures were captured in fishing nets and hauled aboard, screeching and howling like banshees, only for them to suffocate for lack of water reaching the fan-like gills on the sides of their throats.

Many, many rumors and stories surrounded the ningyo in the society of men. There were fables passed for countless generations of the magical properties held by the 'human-faced-fish.' The most famous tale was of a fisherman who happened to capture one and invite his friends to supper where the creature was roasted and passed around. Having seen the humanoid part of the ningyo's body, one of the men at the table warned his fellows not to eat the fish they were served. Instead the men all wrapped the meat in paper to be discarded later. However, one of the gentlemen after having drunken a bit too much sake, absently gave a piece of the merfolk's flesh to his daughter who then lived on as a young woman for over eight hundred years.

Legends also tell that the ningyo would cause great storms if captured, and that one washed ashore was an omen of war or other catastrophe. Though over the course of many years, fewer and fewer land-dwellers believed in the stories of old, accepting the gentile water creatures as simply another breed of fish in the bay. As such, the ningyo were left in privacy for the most part; there was hardly a fisherman at the time who could stomach eating a creature which was half human. Though no official laws were ever written while the merfolk still survived, it became a social taboo to hunt the beings as game.

Though the ningyo did not create formal societies, they did tend to form close-knit groups, known as pods, similar to the migrating proposes. They tended to make their homes in coral reefs and kelp beds instead of building vast, underwater kingdoms as many legends may claim. The simple fact remained that they were a culture of aquatic, social nomads.

There were many pods of merfolk that made their home in the warm waters of the Sagami Bay; there were the Kobushichi, the Kinkyoha and the Akatsuki. Of course every clan has its own stories, and even every ningyo, but this story focuses on one in particular; a male, member of the Akatsuki, named Deidara, and how he fell in love with a half demon.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 -

Deidara was a very young ningyo in terms of the number of seasons he had lived through. As the climate underwater changed very little with the gift of the warm currents that spilled into the bay, years were told by the coming and going of the migrating fish. By these standards, Deidara was precisely 243 years and one half-season old, and still he was most youthful of his entire clan. He was lean and long, well-built muscularly speaking and arguably beautiful. Unlike most mermen, the youngest had long blonde tresses done, half of which were done up into a ponytail atop his head, that seemed to flow naturally with the current of the saltwater. His eyes were a bright, beautiful shade of cerulean, surrounded by dark, thick lashes. The skin of his torso was gently tanned, a trait uncommon in most of the ningyo because of their reclusive, deep-sea living habits. Deidara however preferred to live near the surface, marveling in the dazzling brightness of the rippling waves above and swimming near to the shore to watch and listen to the waves that beat against the beach.

Down his spine ran a long, soft, rippling dorsal fin of a soft white nature, the very outer edge of which was vivid orange. The rest of his lower body, his tail, most closely resembled a spotted koi, glittering white scales with large black and orange markings littering is skin. The fin at the end of his tail was long and elegant, fringed and rippling like the very waves above and coupled with two smaller sets of fins that acted as rudders connected where any human's knee might have been.

Like many of the merfolk, Deidara's body was scattered with scars signifying longevity and the ever persisting skirmishes between pods over nesting grounds. This is not to say that the abrasions that traversed his otherwise flawless skin were _ugly_; by most ningyo standards his healed wounds were considered handsome, especially since nothing had ever come close to injuring his face. He had received a vicious bite to his right arm from a shark that had wandered into the Akatsuki's private cove, and a long gash across his left arm where a fishing line had tangled around his bicep and cut deep into his soft skin. Still the most honorable of his wounds was the cut across his left pectoral, received in a battle with the Uminotaka. Though young for his kind, Deidara was considered to be both brave and beautiful amongst his pod members.

Still to say that he was brave all of the time would be a harsh degree of lying. Most of the blonde's free time was spent close to shore with just his head peeking out over the water so that he could breathe from his gills and still watch and listen as the waves crashed onto the shore. They were beautiful beyond comprehension to Deidara, each unique, wondrous and fleeting, like nothing that could be found under the water. Every time the ocean exploded against the beach was a thrill that lasted for only a second before the waters calmed and receded. It was truly art if the likes of which the blonde had ever seen before, and he would spend hours treading water and watching the roaring waves meet the sand.

Every now and again, Deidara would watch fishermen loading nets into their boats and shoving out into the cove in search of food. He had always been curious about mankind; mostly he had an admiration for their legs and lungs which allowed them movement on the surface world. From time to time he would follow the smaller vessels and say 'hello' to the men aboard, only appearing to screech happily at the crew as he followed in their wake. Though most of his fellows were skittish around humans, knowing the tales of old in which men would hunt the ningyo for their meat, Deidara had no fear of the fishermen. They were mostly friendly, recognizing him as a helpful spirit for on occasion the young merman would corral fish into the waiting nets and chase away the Amikiri which deviously slit the nets of anglers in the bay. After the humans had dragged their haul aboard, the blonde would pull himself up by the side of their canoe, careful to hold his breath and grin at the crew. Frequently he was rewarded with a pat on the head and a fish tucked snugly between his teeth; it was much easier than trying to catch one of the wriggly creatures with his bare palms after all.

Despite his friendliness with the humans, Deidara was still most likely to be found 50 yards or so off of the coast, gazing at the shore and marveling in the beauty of the waves that broke there. Very often his clan members would try to draw him away from his hobby, trying to coax him with the prospect of raiding a neighboring tribe or exploring a new shipwreck that had been uncovered by the shifting tide.

"Come on Deidara-kun, there are so many eels in that old ship! We could fill Kakuzu's treasure chest with them! Don't you want to know what's in there?" A very beautiful ningyo woman begged him, waving her shimmering blueside wrasse tail anxiously such that her ultramarine scales caught the light in a rather distracting manner. "We could find buried gold or beautiful human jewelry," still the blue-haired mermaid insisted pressing still closer to show Deidara the turquoise necklace draped across her bare chest. The blonde blinked down at the gems strung on silver across his friend's bosom, but his mouth twisted, unimpressed by the prospect of finding riches in some old sunken boat.

"I don't know Konan un… those things could be haunted for all we know un…" The shimmering mermaid sighed and shook her head disbelievingly.

"Or you know, you could always find some old corpses from the bastards that died down there. Won't that be fucking fun as hell?" Suddenly the pair was joined from behind by a third ningyo, a silver-haired male with albino skin, magenta eyes and a long, white tail covered from end to end with the notorious fins of the lionfish.

"Stop that Hidan, you know Deidara likes the humans…" Konan snapped, flicking her tailfin at the white merman and giving him a stern look.

"Hey, it's not my fault he's fucking soft. Maybe he should go looking for the Nitaiku no Mie, maybe then he'll grow a pussy like the humans he loves so much!"

All at once, the blue-haired mermaid was in Hidan's face, snarling with her gills flaring and showing their red insides.

"Don't even joke about that you little prick! You know as well as every one of us that the Nitaiku no Mie is cursed with death to all who touch it!" When the silver merman refused to take back his remark, Konan bared her teeth angrily, showing her pointed fangs and with a furious hiss, quickly made a snatch at the male's shoulder. Hidan yelped as the female's teeth found their mark and drew blood from a shallow wound in his shoulder. With an angered sneer, the wrasse tail shook her head through the water to clear her comrade's plasma from her mouth. "Your blood tastes as awful as your personality!" she shot before swimming away after the white, black and orange tail of her friend who had returned to treading water near the surface to watch the waves again.

"Deidara, don't listen to Hidan, he's nothing but a crooked-founder." She spoke to the blonde from under the water, but still he could hear her voice, clear and defined, even with his ears above the surface. Letting his gills fan out in a sigh, the young merman allowed himself to submerge fully again so that he could reply.

"What makes him hate the humans so badly un? They've never done anything to hurt him and yet he's been tipping canoes into shark-infested waters since I can remember un." Konan grunted and brushed a strand of golden hair away from the male's face.

"It's not just the humans. Hidan hates everyone, just humans are easiest for him to pick on." There was a long pause while Deidara looked over his shoulder to see the waves crashing against the shore from the underside as if longing to watch them more. When finally he turned back to Konan, his lips were twisted into a curious kind of frown.

"So, do you think that there really are dead landfolk on that shipwreck un?"

"There might be," she replied tilting her head to the side slightly, "humans are better swimmers that we give them credit for. I bet they made it off of the boat before it sunk all the way."

At this, Deidara immediately brightened, waving his plumy tail in mild enthusiasm and smiling at the mermaid.

"Okay then un. I guess I'll tag along… I mean somebody's gotta protect you from the funayūrei. Wouldn't want you getting snatched away to the underworld by a bunch of angry spirits un."

The female gave him a smile and a nod, nudging Deidara with the end of her indigo tail and swimming off in the direction of the half-buried shipwreck with the blond hot on her tail.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 -

With the prospect of high adventure fully in mind the two ningyo, led by Konan, dove deeper into the dark blue of their beloved bay. Laughing the whole while, the female wove her way through the swaying gardens of kelp and upset tiny clusters of brine shrimp which took to the open waters in a tiny pink cloud. The distance to the shipwreck was terribly long, the boat having sunk towards the mouth of the bay where the waters above became rougher and cooler. Along the way, the merfolk paused beside a great rocky outcrop to pry oysters from the undersea crags. They spent a short interlude pulling the mollusks apart using their hardened claws and scraping the muscular flesh from the inside with their adapted fangs.

With full bellies the pair were back onto the trail in no time, finding their destination poking out of the teal sand about three miles offshore. It was a great and marvelous ship, something built for shipping vast quantities of goods along the coast. Unfortunately, all that remained now was the skeletal remains of what had once been a noble arc, lying on the bottom of the ocean like the bones of a dead whale. Soft, plumy sea-moss had sprouted from nearly every inch of exposed wood, and barnacles clung to the metal beams that served to reinforce the strength of the joints.

Squealing happily and propelling herself down into the exposed cavity of the ship's hull, Konan wasted no time in stirring up what crabs and eels had been hiding in the shelter. With gleeful squeaks like the sounds made by dolphins, the mermaid caught the wriggling tail of a slippery moray before grasping the creature behind the gills with her free hand. Holding up the squirming eel like a prize, the female rushed to present the captured animal to her friend who she found petting the waving moss growing from the bow of the boat.

"Look Deidara-kun! I've caught one!" She suddenly wrapped the terrified, slimy beast around the blonde's throat, coating his gills with eel mucus and making him choke for a moment. The red slits on the sides of his neck flared and flapped frantically to clean the goo away so that he could regain his ability to breathe. Once he had recovered, the merman whipped around and turned on his friend with pursed lips. The glare didn't last long as suddenly he grinned and with a low growl in his throat, snatched the panicked creature from Konan's grasp, holding the slippery fish between his teeth and swimming away a few meters. Giving the girl a high-pitched whistle, Deidara waved his tail in a kind of silent banter, egging her on to try and take the eel back from him.

When his companion finally gave into chase, Deidara gave a gleeful squeal and darted away, keeping the prey in his mouth and just out of Konan's grasp. The pair darted all around the bones of the drowned ship, the blonde buzzing and whistling happily with his mouthful of eel while the wrasse tail shouted her protests after him, only barely managing to keep up. After nearly a half hour of a very one-sided game of 'getaway chase,' the ningyo grew bored of the play. To signify that the sport had finished, Deidara made quick work of their toy, biting the dead eel in half and swallowing the end with the head whole, leaving the softer tail for his counterpart.

When again their stomachs had been filled, the pair gradually took to exploring the vessel, taking their time to allow their eyes to adjust to the lack of light below deck. Using the ends of their tails, the merfolk fanned away the layer of silt that had settled on what of the ship's cargo that wasn't buried in the sand. There were several spice jars, long since ruined by the strong salt in the bay, their wax-paper lids having been corroded away allowing the spices to be spoiled by the sea. There were some bones that were still strung on wires from what was left of the support beams, all the meat having long since been eaten away. All in all there was not much worth mentioning amongst the wreckage, anything that could have been taken away from the boat's carcass had long since deteriorated into worthlessness.

The one thing Deidara had been able to salvage as his prize was an algae covered bolt of silk that after a lot of waving and dragging against the ocean floor was cleaned of most of its dingy green slime and renewed to its former red hue. Konan had been able to pick only a pair of silver coins from the sand, but insisted that the rest must be buried in the sand with the majority of the cargo. With their treasures in hand, the pair began to make their way back into the warmer waters of their home near the cliffs of the bay.

The actual underwater bluffs were alive with merfolk, all males as tribes pods tended to be. Due to their longevity and lack of natural predators, the species had grown to be self-regulating; males outnumbering females nine to one. A mermaid would lay a single spawn every hundred years or so, which would send the males in her clan into a status referred to as _must_ in which mermen compete physically over the right to fertilize the egg. Similar to other pack animals, there will typically be a dominant ningyo male who claims the ova for his own fertilization. In the event that a pod lacks a dominant male, all of the tribe males will swarm over the spawn, each releasing his milt in hopes of fertilizing the egg. In order to prevent inbreeding, no matter the gender of the offspring, once the new ningyo reached reproductive maturity, it was chased off by the existing clan males.

The Akatsuki pod was no exception to the rule. Every member of the clan was male aside from Konan, who in turn had been claimed by the Alpha ningyo, Pein. The leader of the pack had received his reputation, not from general toughness of viciousness or even overprotectiveness, but in the fact that even in a state of must, none of his pod would dare swarm over the ova with Pein in the mix. Like Hidan, the fishlike appendage attached to the alpha's lower body was identifiable under the category of scorpionfish, but differently, the leader's tail was rough, thick, dark brown with a bright orange speckle pattern. Although any unknowledgeable observer might point out that the rounded dorsal and tailfins gave no indication of venom, at the tip of every tube of cartilage was a potent spine filled with venom equivocal to that in the fangs of a cobra. Where the venom of the lionfish found in Hidan's flashy fins caused pain and occasional suffocation due to inflammation, the venom of the stonefish in Pein's rust-colored spines was nearly ten times more toxic.

Aside from Deidara, Konan, Pein and Hidan, the pod consisted of five other males. Kisame was a ningyo nomad from northern waters with a pale gray tint to his rough skin, short-medium length navy blue hair and a tail most closely resembling that of a tiger shark. Itachi was a pale merman with long raven hair and the long, elegant speckled tail of the spotted gar; he had been dependent on Kisame for visual guidance and they had entered into the Akatsuki as a pair. Kakuzu was a dark-skinned male with shoulder length jet-black hair and the tailfin of a coelacanth; oldest in the tribe, Kakuzu had not forgotten the days when ningyo were hunted for food, the many scars on his body showing the countless attempts humans had made to capture him. Sasori was a fiery redhead with a predisposition towards the study of venoms given his innate immunity to the sting of fire corals due to his tail being that of a coral hawkfish. Sasori had been born into a migrating pod which had chased him out as they passed by the Sagami bay during southward migration; finding the waters in the bay temperate, the redhead joined the Akatsuki more or less of his own accord. Finally Zetsu was a total mystery to all other members of the pod. His skin was half black as night and half white as sand and instead of a standard tail that provided for increased mobility in the water, his lower body flowed with the green, leafy tendrils of the seadragon. Not only was it strange for such a creature to be found outside of the tropical waters of Oceania, but stranger still was it that a ningyo had evolved with such a trait.

Returning to their home among the cliffs, Konan and Deidara greeted their clan mates with relatively chipper attitudes as they flaunted their new treasures. Of course finding no use for the glittering human coins, the mermaid eventually passed them off to Kakuzu who had a quirk for hoarding similar treasures valued by men. The blonde used the bolt of silk to line the narrow cave in which he rested at night, finding the fabric to be soft, slick and pleasing to the touch. Once satisfied with his new bedding, Deidara informed his wrasse tailed friend that he was returning to the shallows to watch the waves crash before the sun sunk too low in the sky.

With Konan's eventual consent, the youngest member of the pod slipped off again to watch 50 meters from the beach as the waves roared ashore. Gradually the tide was going out, revealing more and more rocks poking up through the sand as the shadows began to stretch longer and longer towards the east. The heat of the day had mostly subsided, though there was still a couple hours before sunset, making Deidara's observation of the exploding surf all the more enjoyable.

He had been watching the ocean beat against the shore for at least twenty minutes when he was interrupted by a sharp tug on his tailfin. Deidara hardly had time to react, only a quick yelp escaping his lips as he was dragged downward, away from the pleasant view of the waves. Of course there was no worry of drowning, he was a fish after all, but the prospect of the last few hours of enjoying the waves being snatched from him was infuriating. Looking over his shoulder as still he sank, Deidara caught sight of Hidan's ornate tailfin beating a hasty retreat into the less-than-clear brine. Looking _down_, all the young ningyo could see was a rope tied securely around the end of his tail, doubtlessly then tied to a weight that pulled him still lower into the water. Hissing in frustration, the koi tail elected to wait until he had reached the bottom so that he could undo the loop around his fin and return to the surface for the last watch of the day.

When finally the stone about his tail came to a rest, Deidara bent his spine to untie the binding, but before he could get his fingers around the slimy old rope, a sudden current pulled the stone and its prisoner sideways. Caught up in a vicious undertow, the blonde shouted for the aid of his clan, but not soon enough as the currents of an enormous wave yanked him head over fin and tossed him in a violent, sandy, churning mess onto a large, porous rock half sunken into the beach. Without water, Deidara's gills flared, searching desperately for a drop of moisture such that would allow him a breath, but no such luck as already the tide was licking further and further down the beach. His next reaction was to quickly untie the rock around his tail and make a mad scramble back towards the receding surf, but with his flexible spine contorted over the boulder, there was no possible way his arms could reach the end of his long tail. Desperately, the ningyo gasped and choked on air, praying that perhaps another monstrous wave would suck him back out into the bay, but no such luck as the tide merely lapped at the sand-filled ends of his tresses while he dried in the fading sun.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 -

With gritty sand between his toes and his hands tucked into his sleeves, Inuyasha grumbled irately to himself. His mood had been cross at best for the last week and a half, ever since the girl he had worked so hard to form a love with had disappeared never to return. Of course the Shikon Jewel had been mended and Naraku slain and the world set right, but that was the very problem. Without being needed in the feudal era, Kagome had realized that home was where she was needed most. Though she knew Inuyasha loved her hopelessly and she returned the feeling in such a way, there was nothing more for a love that was so divided by time. A week and a half ago, she had bid the half demon her final goodbye, telling him not to forget her but still to move on. A week and a half ago, Inuyasha had begged her to stay, telling her how pointless his life was without her in it. A week and a half ago, she had disappeared down the Bone Eater's Well anyway. A week and a half ago, the well had ceased to function as a time portal to modern Tokyo, and ever since, there was no rousing the distraught hanyou from his slump.

In hopes that a little adventure and a change of scenery would do him good and raise his spirits, Miroku had demanded a visit to the seaside not twenty miles west of Kaede's village. The pair planned to make camp in the warm evening on the pristine sands of the Sagami Bay, and a fishing expedition had been planned for the day afterward. As the day wound down, Inuyasha's demeanor had seen little improvement, but at the very least he was up and moving instead of curled up and miserable in his cabin in the woods.

The pair hiked up the warm shore in their bare feet, the silver-haired half demon staying silent but listening with his keen pointed dog ears as Miroku recounted the story of a gypsie who had stayed with the monks in their monastery.

"And one evening, after much merrymaking, Ebisu suggested something rater brash to the girl. Immediately she gasped and said _'You can't do that! You're a monk!'_ to which Ebisu only grinned and said _'Actually milady, I'm just a friar'_."

The encounter must have been uproariously hilarious, because once he had finished telling the story, he couldn't contain his laughter. On the other hand, his companion only nodded slightly and grunted in a kind of acknowledgment of his friend's humor. With his plot to improve Inuyasha's mood again foiled, the raven-haired monk sighed and gave in to walking quietly side-by-side with the hanyou.

They must have walked at least a mile up the beach, letting the salty waves lick playfully at their toes every now and again. There was a slight bend in the shore where a tangle of trees forced a sandy outcropping further out into the bay and gave the land a natural elbow in the otherwise unbroken coast. When the two came around the corner, a glimmer of silver and gold caught the half demon's keen eye, and he picked up his pace to investigate. Draped over a large, sand-covered boulder was what appeared to be the tail of a very large fish, tied to an anchor and cast ashore by the cruel surf. The tail itself was quite gorgeous, having the distinct coloration and flowing fins of a spotted koi fish, only immense in size.

With his natural curiosity grabbed, Inuyasha couldn't help but investigate, peering over the edge of the rock to see the rest of the monster-fish that had washed up on the beach. What he found was not the kind of fish he had been expecting, however. Leaning over the cusp of the rugged boulder, the hanyou's eyes fell on the body of a man, or the torso at least, attached to the wilted tail. Overall, the strange biological phenomenon appeared to be dead; Inuyasha had to crinkle his sensitive nose against the powerful stink of drying fish. The only indication that the creature might still be alive was the occasional fanning of its gills. Looking over the stranded body, Inuyasha could tell only by the lack of breasts that the fish-man was male. He spent another long while looking over the strange beast in wonderment before again the flapping of the thing's gills caught his attention. The beached sea-creature was suffocating in the air.

Hardly thinking before he acted, as was quite typical for Inuyasha to say the least, the hanyou immediately rushed around the other side of the rock to stand directly beside the miserable ningyo.

"Inuyasha, is that-?"

"Shut up Miroku! Can't you see he can't breathe?"

There wasn't a moment's hesitation as the hanyou cut the grimy rope off of the beached merman's tailfin with his razor-sharp claws. As the anchor fell away, the koi tail slumped slightly. Next, Inuyasha scooped the drying fish in his arms, noting how the creature's blue eyes were rolled back and a minute film of foam clung to his hopelessly parted lips. If it wasn't for the occasional flapping of the bright red gills, Inuyasha surely would have pronounced the ningyo dead.

With the blonde koi tail firmly in his grasp, the half demon leaped out into the roaring whitecaps, forcing himself out passed where the current pulled and the waves broke, carrying the helpless fish out to deeper, safer waters. Once he had waded past the cresting surf, Inuyasha kept moving until he stood in about four and a half feet of brine, covering his body up to his shoulders and submerging the merman in his arms completely.

Suddenly Deidara felt the rush of his breath returning to him as slowly oxygen made it back into his system. His desperate gills churned the water and suddenly his eyes regained their sight, blinking away the mucus that had formed over his dry ocular. At the same time, however, he began to regain the feeling in the rest of his body and looking around wildly, found himself belly-up in the arms of a red robed man. Panic was his first reaction, but when the man clutching his shoulder and lateral muscles made no move to harm him, only held him stead in the water, that fear melted away into relief.

For a moment the blonde allowed himself to be held in the comfortable weightlessness of the water relishing in the human contact for all its strangeness. The moment might have gone on quite a bit longer had There not been a quiet gasping from above and with a sudden shifting, the man that cradled the ningyo's weakened frame ducked his head underwater. At first, Deidara went totally rigid, not having expected to come eye-to-eye with his rescuer, but seeing as how it was impossible to gage whether the merman was recovering through the water, Inuyasha had been forced to dive to see for himself. For that petrifying moment, bright cerulean eyes met deep gold ones and the pair held each other's gaze for what felt like ages.

The moment ended all too suddenly, as Inuyasha yanked his head back to gasp for a fresh breath of air, shaking his wetted, silver hair and looking over his shoulder to the monk waiting on the land.

"I'm pretty sure he's recovering, I just think he's kind of freaked out and disoriented right now."

Miroku only waved to show that he had heard and continued to wait patiently as Inuyasha carried out his good deed.

Turning back to the charge in his arms, the hanyou took in another deep breath and sealed his lips, plunging under the water again to keep an eye on the ningyo's progress. No sooner had his head ducked under the surface again than the merman in hi his arms suddenly lurched as if in surprise. Nearly losing his grip on the fish, Inuyasha let a few bubbles escape from his nostrils, unable to react fast enough as suddenly a pair of warm, wet arms reached out for him and wrapped around his neck. Before the hanyou could pull away, the blonde male rapidly closed the gap between them. The silver haired man could only watch with wide-eyed astonishment as the ningyo pulled him in close and suddenly sealed their lips together. There was a heart-stopping moment while their mouths were in contact and nothing was going on in Inuyasha's upstairs. He couldn't even react as suddenly his jaws were invaded by the rough, luke-warm, salty tongue of the merman he had rescued. In the other male's grip, he was helpless to pull away from the strange, startling and _fishy_ tasting kiss; had Deidara wished to, he could have drowned the man that had saved his life by simply overpowering him in the water.

Nothing of that nature happened, however, as suddenly the tongue retracted and the blonde looked the half demon in the eyes once again. Inuyasha could only stare in astonishment as the ningyo gave him the warmest of smiles.

"Thank you un" the koi tail spoke in a perfectly clear voice under the water, stroking the side of the hanyou's cheek. With that said, the merman suddenly jerked and quickly wriggled out of the stunned hanyou's grasp, disappearing into the open bay with unparalleled speed.

All the while, Inuyasha had nearly forgotten to breathe; only remembering as his chest began to give him a terrible pain for want of oxygen. Throwing his head above water, the hanyou took in several deep lungfuls of air. As soon as he had caught his breath, Inuyasha whirled around to face his friend on the shore.

"Did… Did you see that Miroku?"

"See what? The ningyo? Of course I did!"

"No, I mean…! Ah!" The silver-haired mutt had been about to bring up the sudden kiss, but stopped himself, finding it to be something he'd rather not discuss with his lecherous companion. "N-nothing! Just… he's fine… s-swam off."

"Well that's good. How about you come out of that water now and dry off before night sets in and you freeze your rear off."

To this, the half demon could only grunt and nod, fighting his way out of the rolling tide and wiping his lips. He still couldn't get the taste of fish out of his mouth.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 -

Though still tired and a little dizzy from having been suffocated on dry land for nearly twenty minutes, Deidara still found the energy to power back to the alcove in the bluffs where the Akatsuki made their home. All the while he licked his chops, running his tongue over the rough ridges on the inside of his lips to refresh the taste of the other man in his sensory organs. Similar to the Jacobson's organ in cats, the ningyo had a similar trait that allowed them to detect the general health, hormone levels and even powerful emotions from other creatures based on their taste.

With all merfolk having this quality it was natural to connect lips as a way to rapidly exchange information, and from the simple contact one could tell the other's needs and strong desires. Of course this was also a way for a mating pair to express a desire for intimacy as the strength of a sexual desire is amongst the most easily transmitted alongside fear, anger and sadness. As it was established earlier, however, the merfolk do not have external sex organs and do not reproduce sexually. Being oviparous, the ningyo rely on the season of _must_ for egg laying and fertilization. However, it is not to say that they have not evolved a need for pleasurable, intimate contact. Like purposes and humans, the merfolk also engaged in recreational sex, the only difference being that sex for these creatures was purely for enjoyment and held no sway on procreation.

As such, though a kiss, even a deep one with exploring tongue, did not necessarily signify a lustful desire. Instead the action was merely probing, and Deidara had probed just enough. Never before had he tasted the chemicals of the human body, they were strong, pungent and even bitter. Of course the most overpowering flavor was the hormone testosterone, an astringent flavor that was far more powerful in the hanyou than in any merman Deidara had ever encountered; of course in ningyo, being sexually male held much less baring than in land-dwelling societies. Still the blonde ran his tongue over the rough patch of taste buds behind his upper lip, again filling his senses with the taste of his rescuer. He was strong, physically fit and nutritionally well, in the range of 80 to 100 years of age, _blaringly_ male, and surprised to have the lips of a merman against his own.

Deidara couldn't help but chuckle, enjoying the sour taste of the rare emotion of astonishment the kiss had invoked. Of course he had observed human behavior before, and on the very rarest of occasions he would see a kiss pass from husband to wife before a particularly long overseas voyage. He couldn't even begin to understand why then the kiss had been so startling to the man who had saved his life; surely it was a standard human practice.

Either way, the blonde was fast approaching the Akatsuki camp and decided to quickly rid his mouth of the so pungent flavor. Along the way he filled his mouth with bitter sea grass and scraped his rough tongue over algae covered boulders and eve rinsed his maw with sand. Still he was dissatisfied with the result and took a detour away from the nesting grounds of his pod. To be sure that the scent and taste was completely removed from his body, Deidara rolled himself in kelp and sand and mud, a way of washing away the human odor by fading it away and downing it out with other smells. No matter what happened, he didn't want his pod knowing that he'd been in human contact; they thought him treacherous enough fraternizing with fishermen. If word had gotten around that he'd been washed ashore, he'd simply tell them that a second large wave had pulled him back out into the bay and the anchor had simply broken off of his tail. It was foolproof!

Deidara made a happy squeak as he entered the camp to announce his return, turning in a quick barrel roll before spinning around to see if any of his clan members had missed him or worried for him. The overall mood was apathetic; Pein rolled over where he'd been trying to get to sleep early while Sasori looked up from the purple urchin he was plucking at and Itachi yawned. Apparently Hidan hadn't made any point that he had nearly caused the death of the youngest in the group. The blonde male's shoulders slumped visibly.

"You're back early, brat… thought we'd at least have another hour of peace and quiet around here without you talking everybody's ears off." Sasori grunted, returning to plucking the spines off of the venomous creature in his hands.

Deidara visibly deflated to this, having wished to at least have been missed by his clan mates. As it wasn't the case, however, he did not dwell on it publically or make an issue of being ignored; as the 243 year old baby of the pod, he was used to being shoved away every now and again. Without a further word, the blonde darted off, slipping into his silk-lined cave in the bluff that hung over the south side of the camp. The little hollow was just barely large enough for him lengthwise, and he almost couldn't turn around once inside, seeing as it would be impossible for him to back into the crevice. Perhaps the creature that had long ago dug its home out of the cliff had been much smaller than even a young merman.

Finally arranging himself so that his head rested on his folded arms at the mouth of his chamber, Deidara let out an exhausted sigh, the water rippling through his gills as he exhaled. He closed his eyes and allowed his mouth to twist into an expression of dissatisfaction as he fought to catch some early sleep. Absently all the while, the ningyo's rough tongue slid over the sensory buds on his inner lip, searching desperately for the tiniest scrap of the hanyou's taste that might still linger in his mouth.

Back on the beach, Inuyasha and Miroku were just settling into their freshly made camp; blankets had been rolled out on the sand for their sleeping, and a fire pit had been scraped out of the sand. The dry driftwood they had gathered snapped and glowed vividly as the bright orange flames licked at the warped branches. The hanyou laid on his side with his head propped up in one hand while his gaze concentrated on the crackling fire. Ever since he had crawled out of the surf looking like a drowned rat, his mind had refused to let the strange encounter go.

He had only been being a Good Samaritan, aiding a living, _thinking_ creature that would have perished otherwise. He should be satisfied with his deed, proud of it even; it felt like it had been so long since he had acted for the good of anyone other than himself. He had been involved in an almost constant string of heroic efforts for a solid year, but after all the jewel shards had been collected and Naraku had been vanquished, he found himself feeling purposeless. Neither did it help that Kagome had returned permanently to her own time to live the life of a normal teenage girl of the 20th century.

Inuyasha, try as he might, could not get the scene out of his head. He had revived a merman who was near to the brink of death, and been rewarded with a very intimate kiss and a coy thanks before being abandoned completely. Perhaps, he thought, it was in the nature of the strange fish-people to act impulsively, thinking more like sentient animals than like evolved humans. But still that raised the question; what impulse could possibly drive a male creature to lock lips with a strange man?

It was like a particularly complex puzzle-box, and no matter how Inuyasha turned it, he simply couldn't put an answer to the notion. There was simply nothing that seemed to explain the tongue that had invaded his mouth that afternoon. In all his deep pondering, the hanyou must have appeared cross, because after a long while of concentrating on his thoughts, Miroku finally interrupted.

"Inuyasha, are you feeling okay?"

"Hu? Oh… oh yeah… I'm fine, just… thinking about stuff…" He tried not to look the monk in the eyes, fearing that perhaps his friend would see what was troubling his thoughts so badly.

"Ever since you rescued that ningyo from the beach, you've been… quiet… Is something bothering you?" The raven-haired man's brow finally furrowed and he leaned in a little closer to his companion, lowering his voice to a whisper as if passing on a secret. "Have you been thinking about Kagome again?"

"No!" Inuyasha blurted defensively; of course he _hadn't_ been thinking of her. "I've just been going over some stuff in my head about how I miss being this big hero all the time… and I guess saving that man-fish… what did you call it? Ningya?"

"Ningyo."

"Right… anyway… Saving him felt… weird I guess…"

"How so?" Miroku raised one brow inquisitively, it was very rare to get so much of a conversation from Inuyasha, especially one regarding his thoughts and feelings.

"Well he… I don't know…" Again the hanyou had considered telling the weird little story to his friend, but again backed out due to shame and embarrassment. "Just… do you know anything about fish-people?"

"You mean _mer_people? Not much, I'm sorry; only a few wives tales and myths, but nothing of substance. Why the sudden curiosity?"

"Well I figure I ought to know a little something about the things I find on the beach." Though his voice sounded sturdy enough, the half demon's ears twitched to the sides slightly, and Miroku could immediately tell that he wasn't being given the whole story. Still, he allowed Inuyasha to have his own secrets; it truly was none of his business after all.

"Perhaps after our vacation is over you can pose your questions to Kaede. Surely she will be more knowledgeable than I."

Inuyasha only nodded and gave a slight grunt, turning back to the fire to continue his cogitation. Even as his mind wandered, the hanyou could swear he could still feel the merman's rough muscle grinding against his tongue.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 -

Dawn had barely begun to paint the skies a downy gray by the time the two friends' camp had been rolled up and buried. Loading their tackle into a wide, wooden canoe, Miroku glanced over his shoulder to see his companion sitting with his chin in his knees, staring solemnly out over the misty bay. Once their rods, lures and lunches had been packed into their little boat, the monk stood beside his friend and placed a kind hand on the half demon's slumped shoulder.

"Do not fret, Inuyasha. Many men do their best thinking on quiet fishing expeditions. All will be clear to you when you come ashore, I promise." The hanyou only grunted and slowly hauled himself to his feet.

"Yeah… or they will be infinitely more complicated…"

"With that attitude your problems can only compound… at least try to relax and enjoy yourself today."

"Whatever Miroku."

Without a further word, the pair shoved their craft out through the high tide and finally leap aboard with soaking pants and paddles in hand. They maneuvered the craft until the shore was just barely visible, a tiny scratch on the foggy horizon, knowing that as the day wore on the motion of the ocean would gradually carry them ashore. When the canoe was securely afloat away from all the distractions of the mainland, both men baited their hooks and cast their lines.

Facing their backs to each other, the friends sat in silence for what felt like ages. Being a monk, Miroku was well versed in the art of patience and sat contentedly on his end of the boat waiting peacefully for a tug on his line. Inuyasha on the other hand grew restless at first, then listless. Eventually the hanyou ended up with his legs folded and his jaw cupped in his palms. As the hours passed his mind wandered without leash, making him think of things that weren't necessarily expected.

As anyone might predict, his thoughts first wandered to Kagome, but after a couple hours of mind failing to escape her Inuyasha became fed up. He had come up with some kind or resolution, even though it was arguably rash; he was done hurting himself thinking about a girl who had been very firm in giving him up. The very second he returned to the shore, he would begin his search for the perfect person to become his wife, a kind of vengeful stab at Kagome that also met his own growing needs for companionship. Having Kikyo and Kagome with him for the past few years he could remember, of course excluding the 50 some odd years he had spent pegged to the god tree, had taught him the inexplicable joys of wistful love. It was something he was finding himself more and more lost without.

In retrospect, Miroku had been right; he had done some great thinking after all.

They spent several uneventful hours bobbing on the placid surface of the lake with naught more than a nibble on either hook. Perhaps it was the incorrect bait, or the wrong place to fish, but it was nearly noon before either man felt a tug on his line. First it had been Miroku, just a quick little jerk before the line again went totally slack. Inuyasha's pole quivered and bowed momentarily before it too lost whatever fish had gone after his bait. With an irritated grunt, the hanyou pulled his line in and replaced the stolen scrap of meat on the end of his hook. Resetting his lure, the half demon didn't need to wait more than another minute before again his poll was yanked and his bait was snatched with no prey resulting. After running through a third trial with the same conclusion, Inuyasha growled and peered over the edge of the canoe, trying to spy the clever fish that kept robbing him of his bait.

All at once, the boat rocked violently, nearly throwing the hanyou overboard. Immediately the elder man took a seat and exchanged worried glances with Miroku, who was busy winding up his line to be recast. The waters calmed and both men let their relief show with thankful sighs, but the safety was short-lived. Again the boat was shoved, rocking the tiny vessel hard enough to send a box of rice cakes overboard. Their lunch quickly forgotten, the pair clung to their craft as again it was rammed by whatever monstrous creature was dwelling below the surface. This time the canoe found lacking balance and capsized, dumping its cargo and passengers into the bay with the beast that tipped them.

"_Hidan! Leave them alone!"_

There was a sudden whirling of fins and scales and spines below the water, and had Inuyasha not been holding his breath, he would have screamed as suddenly, agony surged up his left leg. It was like the feeling of his flesh burning and freezing and dying all at once, a kind of contorting pain that left him nearly immobile, kicking only with his right leg as he struggled to reach the surface and escape the creature that had stung him.

"_Get the fuck out of here before I strip your gills!"_

Discarding his deep violet robe, Miroku had made it to the surface and clung to the edge of their upturned boat. The monk cast about wildly for any sign of his friend, but none arose, worrying him greatly. Suddenly a head rose up from the water beside him, and as the raven-haired man whirled around to be sure that his companion was safe, he was met with the face of a stranger. A beautiful blue-haired woman treaded water by his side for a moment before ducking her head below the surface. Before he could react in the least, Miroku was grabbed about the shoulders and dragged below the surface. Blinking his eyes open in a desperate attempt to see his attacker, the monk again came face to face with the young lady, finding that the female before him was not only beautiful, but without clothes. Despite his virtue, the young man found his eyes wandering downward, lingering on the exposed breasts for a moment before looking towards more intimate regions. To his surprise, however, where a human's womanhood would have been, there were dazzling ultramarine scales which led into a long, beautiful ningyo tailfin.

Having lost her patience, the mermaid snatched the staring monk's head between her hands and forced his eyes to meet hers.

"He is safe. Deidara will take care of your friend. You need not worry." Miroku blinked stupidly at the fair creature that held his eyes and mind captive; he could hardly remember who she was talking about. "Look… your friend got poisoned by the venomous fish that tipped your boat, but my friend will treat his envenomation, okay? We will return him to you… now go, breathe before you drown." Giving the raven-haired man a quick shove upward, Konan forced him to break the surface and snap out of his lecherous trance.

His head finally breaking the surface, the monk gasped to fill his lungs with fresh breath and clung to the lip of the upturned canoe. Casting about, the young man found himself alone yet again, grasping at the edge of his only means of flotation with no way back to the beach aside from hoping for the tide to work quickly. He found himself wishing that Inuyasha hadn't disappeared, but somehow he had managed to remember the words of the ningyo woman; he had been poisoned and the merfolk were treating his sting. With a low groan, the monk let his head fall forward to rest against the ribs of the little vessel. Whatever would he do when it came time to return to the village and Inuyasha wasn't with him? What could he say to Kaede, that the hanyou had been kidnapped my fish-people? Though the truth, news as such could only cause hostility between the peaceful ningyo and the humans, and it was against Miroku's morals to stir up conflict between two coexisting cultures.

He'd been floating and clinging to the side of his canoe like a half-drowned rat for nearly twenty minutes when again the little boat rocked furiously. The raven-haired man's heart immediately sunk at the thought of whatever toxic creature that had felled his friend returning for a second helping. The tipping of the upturned vessel was much calmer than the previous attack, making the young man curious. Just as he let his head below the surface, the canoe rolled over just above him. Again he caught a glimpse dazzling, indigo scales and soft, alabaster skin. Doubtlessly hoping for another eyeful of the beautiful mermaid's exposed chest, the less-than-pure monk swam slowly underneath the belly of the boat, finding the waters on the other side of the boat to be just as empty as they had been on the side he had come from.

Tired and slightly dejected, he finally gave up the search for the fair creature who _clearly_ didn't want to be found. Miroku returned to the surface, taking in three deep lungfuls of air. Though he was thankful that the ningyo woman had righted his boat, still he wished for another look at her beautiful face and naked skin. Soggy, pruned and covered in salt which irritated his skin greatly, the monk hauled himself over the edge of the boat, finding that the majority of the tackle had been returned in no real order, the only piece missing being the small box of meats to be used for bait. All the while hoping that his missing friend had good fate, Miroku began the long, arduous paddle back to the shore.

"Deidara! Deidara wake up!" The blonde was rudely shaken awake from his rather blissful dreams, breaking the gossamer of his relived memories and tearing him back into reality. He gradually blinked his eyes open, itching at the back of his neck and stretching his gills in a wide yawn.

"What Konan? It's early… haven't you ever heard of sleeping late un?"

"No time to sleep in you idiot. There are bait-fishers in the middle of the bay, and I don't know about you, but I'd fancy a bit of their pork for breakfast."

Immediately the younger ningyo was wise awake and wriggling out of the narrow cave in which he made his bed like an eel. Doing a few twists and loops in the water, the koi tail stretched his spine, limbering up for the beginning of the day. With that, the dynamic duo were off in search of the easiest of meals; one that could be stolen from the humans.

Within perhaps twenty minutes, the pair of merfolk had located the tiny boat bobbing slightly on the gentle waves in the middle of the bay. Sure as Konan had said, there were two hooks dangling into the water, each with a generous morsel of meat attached. Gleefully, the blonde hid underneath the wide canoe and took to removing the little treat from the fisherman's line. Careful not to disturb the string too much, he quickly pulled the tender piece of flesh off of the little bone hook. Once he had the bait off of the lure, Deidara gave the line a quick tug to let the fisherman know he was ready for another piece of meat while quickly popping the treat he had into his mouth and savoring the foreign flavor. Red meats were rare, brash and wonderful to the ningyo, like a fabulous delicacy that only came once in a blue moon.

And so the pair of merfolk floated beneath the boat and ate every scrap of pork that were dangled before them by the unwitting anglers. It might have continued until the fishermen were completely out of bait, but as all good things must come to an early end, there was no such luck. Like a paled phantom, the familiar shape of their albino clan mate gradually came into view. Hidan sneered at the snacking pair and looked on from a few meters off.

"You two fuckers know you're doing it wrong, don't you."

"Get lost Hidan, all the hooks on this boat are taken un." The albino merman arched his dorsal spines in irritation, narrowing his eyes at the smug younger male.

"You just don't understand the fucking correct way to get bait from damned fishermen. Here I'll fucking show you!" With a wave from his powerful tail, the lionfish tailed male launched himself forward, forcing his pod members to dart out of his way as he violently rammed the bottom of the canoe with his sturdy back. The canoe rocked horribly violently, threatening to throw its passengers overboard.

"Stop it Hidan! You'll drown someone like that!"

"Why the fuck would I care? I just want their fucking pork!"

From the other side, again the albino ningyo charged the hull of the tiny canoe, trying to force it to upset its contents. Above there was a scrambling sound as the fishermen struggled to find their balance and brace their little boat for another strike. Though the two onlookers' gills were flailing in anger and concern for the humans onboard, they could do naught but watch, fearing being on the receiving end of one of Hidan's venomous barbs.

"Come on, Hidan, get out of here un! Leave the humans alone un."

"You gonna make me, hook-sucker?" The older male splayed his poisonous spines threateningly, making Deidara frown but say no more. With a cruel smirk, again the albino rushed the boat, and with another fierce blow, the vessel lost balanced and capsized, dumping its cargo and passengers into the bay.

"Hidan! Leave them alone!"

The elder merman dove into the sinking loot, tearing through the useless human junk until he located the little box full of raw meats. With his prize, Hidan wriggled is tail gleefully, his spines knocking into what of the cargo still floated nearby and sinking suddenly into the leg of one of the fishermen.

"Get the fuck out of here before I strip your gills!" Konan shrieked, but all too late as the damage was done, and taking his box of t treats, Hidan made his victorious retreat. It didn't take but a few seconds for both remaining merfolk to taste the blood seeping into the water from the unfortunate man who had been the victim of envenomation. The red robed man struggled in clear agony, fighting his heavy clothes and useless leg to get to the surface for a breath.

Deidara's heart froze in his chest as he instantly recognized the half demon who had rescued him the day before; past the stink of blood in the water, he could clearly detect traces of himself lingering around the sinking victim. He panicked instantly. There was no way he could allow Konan that he had fraternized with landfolk the night before. In a rush of instinct, he darted instantly over to the scarlet-clad man and pressed his back against the hanyou's, locking their elbows together in a standard method that had been used to rescue drowning humans in the centuries of peace.

"Konan, he's been poisoned, I need to get him treatment now before the reaction sets in. Take care of the other fisherman un."

"Are you sure you know what you're doing Deidara?"

"Of course, have some faith in me un." Not allowing for further discussion, the blonde immediately swam to the surface with the half demon on his back. With the air breathing man on his back, the ningyo skimmed just below the surface such that his precious cargo's head still poked above the water while being transported. Though there had been some struggling to begin with, the water in his lungs and the poison in his veins had been enough to force the half demon into unconsciousness while Deidara powered towards the nearest shore, a very small island peeping up out of the bay.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 -

As fast as his powerful fin could take him with the added weight and drag, the blonde pushed himself towards land, keeping his vulnerable cargo's head above water the whole while. The nearest shore was a tiny island, perhaps 100 meters long in all directions with a few scraggly maples trying to survive in the crags. There was a sheltered cove where the waves broke much farther out and did not reach the soft shore. The beach itself was made of dark, volcanic, granule sand; thick and course like the sea had not ground it entirely. The entire island was misted in a kind of thick spray as the waves broke against the dark cliffs all around the little inlet filling the air with a damp, salty smell and feel. All around there were gulls nesting in the bluffs and they circled above, looking for the little crabs and other shellfish the gentle tides coaxed ashore.

Even with his belly scraping against the harsh sand, Deidara slithered forward with the man on his spine, determined to carry the hanyou ashore and repay the favor he had been done. With a kind of effort his ocean-dwelling muscles weren't used to, the ningyo managed to drag the unconscious man up onto the beach, holding his breath all the way, until the half demon was securely on the shore. Several times the blonde wriggled like a worm back into the calm waters to recapture his breath before crawling out of the safety of the brine to move the silver-haired man into a secure location. Finally he gave the endeavor a rest, being satisfied with the man having been dragged up the beach until the ocean only licked softly up to his calves.

Deidara checked over the body several times, tilting his charge's head to the side so that in the event that he vomited while unconscious he would not choke. Out of sheer concern for the man's health, the merman had removed his hakama, leaving his lower half bare. Ignoring the rest of the half-naked body on the beach, the blonde studied closely the three seeping punctures on the hanyou's left thigh, tasting the salty blood coupled with the ascorbic taste of venom that still tainted the wounds.

Once underwater yet again, the ningyo shook his head to clear the taste from his mouth, his brow furrowing as he tried to gather is options. Ideally, the other man would have had gills such that he could be taken to one of the many volcanic vents in the northern waters such that his envenomation could be treated with hot water. Unfortunately such vents happened to be very deep underwater and could never be reached without drowning the victim in question. The only other hope he had, other than simply waiting for the toxin to pass from his system naturally, would be for him to receive an antidote, and quickly before the poison spread throughout his body.

Of course, Sasori, the redhead in Deidara's pod, had developed a counteragent to Hidan's venom and kept it in ready supply in the event that the albino should inject one of his clan members. It was risky, but the koi tail couldn't think of any alternative; the antivenom would have to be stolen from Sasori's stores. With one final glance over his shoulder, the young merman checked on his charge on the beach, making sure that the tide would climb no higher and wash him away. Silently promising the fainted hanyou that he would return quickly, Deidara ducked underwater and quit the calm bay, swimming furiously back to camp.

Finding his way quickly through the familiar waters, the young merman circled around the honeycomb-like bluff where the Akatsuki made their beds, finding the little alcove carved out of the side of the cliff where Sasori did most of his work with venoms. Thankfully the round little cave was empty and all of the pilfered bottles of antidotes were lined neatly on the natural shelves of rippling stone. Adrenaline surged through Deidara's blood; he was never allowed into the redhead's private chamber, not that he had been forbidden, but that Sasori was a very secretive ningyo and kept to himself for the most part. The last thing the koi tail wanted was to be caught raiding his comrade's stores of precious antidotes, it would simply spell disaster.

Deidara scanned over jar after jar and bottle after bottle of thick liquids of all different colors. There were countless glass vials, each pilfered from the wreckage of human's ships, each full to the prim and sealed with lids and corks and wax to keep the precious contents from escaping into the water or being mellowed out by unwanted saline. The blonde didn't know where exactly to begin; there was such an array of liquid cures in every color from deep violet to bright orange and yellow. One of the jars stood out among the rest, a tiny little jar full of a perfect, white gently foamy mixture and capped with pitch. Of course! Hidan was albino, entirely white all the way through, so of course his venom would be white and his antitoxin too must be white. Victoriously Deidara grabbed the little jar off of the shelf and clutched it close, but alas the victory was too short lived.

"What are you doing in my private study, brat?" The blonde ningyo froze and subsequently sank a few feet in the water, an action that simply screamed his guilt.

"I was just… uh… looking for you un! You always hang out in here, I just assumed you'd be down here un!" The younger male turned, keeping the tiny vile behind his back as he spun to face Sasori who was waving his tail in irritation, rather like an annoyed cat.

"Looking to steal some of my antidotes I see? Che, you are a horrible liar Deidara." Sasori narrowed his eyes, leaning slightly to be sure he knew which of the bottles the other was hiding behind his back. "Go ahead and drink it, you'll be dead in two minutes. Not everything I keep down here is a cure, you know. That bottle you've got behind your back? That's banded sea snake venom, it arrests the gills, seizes the heart and freezes the muscles, and from what I can know, it is a very slow way to die."

Looking at the tiny white vial in his hand, Deidara swallowed a lump of fear that had suddenly risen in his throat; how close he had come to dosing the suffering man with deadly poison. Not able to get rid of the little jar fast enough, the blonde replaced it on the shelf and backed away slowly as if simply having touched the thing, he might already be afflicted with the deadly toxin.

"Don't shit yourself brat, I keep that one sealed well, I'm studying it for an antidote, but nothing has worked so far." Suddenly Sasori beat his tail and the elder ningyo was in the koi tail's face. "So if you're not after my precious sea snake venom, what are you to take?" Again the blonde gulped, but before he could give his answer, the hawkfish tail gave his shoulder a quick nip, creating enough of a rift to rub his lip against and taste the younger male's blood. "You don't taste poisoned to me… but there's something else…"

Deidara yelped as with a rush of force, he was overpowered by the elder merman and forced against the wall of the private alcove. Before he could help it, Sasori's tongue slipped past his lips and probed his mouth, but most importantly, grazed over the rough sensory organ behind his lip. The blonde whined in protest, able to taste the hostility and suspicion on the elder male's tongue, but it was far too late to be stopped. Sasori retracted his rugged muscle and licked his own lip, filling his taste buds with the foreign tang of human blood coupled with the familiar lionfish venom.

"… Human blood… Deidara… why is there human's blood in your mouth?"

As much as he wanted to keep his secret, as Sasori had said before, he was a horrible liar. There would be nothing but the truth he could tell the other male that would be believed. He swallowed hard and looked away for a moment before finally he gave in to the pressure of his pod mate.

"Hi-Hidan capsized a boat of fishermen un, one of them was poisoned in the leg and couldn't swim, so I swam him to shore, but he's really suffering. I need to treat him un, he… he saved my life when I got beached on the rocks un…"

Though Sasori narrowed his chocolate-brown eyes at the younger merman, he could tell there was truth in his voice. Suddenly, he combed his fingers though his thick, blood-red hair and let out a long sigh.

"Again with humans brat… I should have known…"

"This is different Sasori-danna!" the blonde protested, "He's not even all human! He's only half! He's part demon too!"

"Demon?"

"Yeah un!" As soon as he admitted it, Deidara regretted telling such a thing to Sasori, knowing though the redhead didn't have any particular hatred for landfolk, he had nothing against testing his antivenoms against them. He could tell the information had perked the other male's interest, just in the way the other merman's tail twitched with intrigue. Taking a long while to consider the new discovery, the hawkfish tail paced slightly as if firmly deliberating Deidara's fate. Finally, he looked up and took a loose hold of the blonde's shoulder with his right palm.

"Half demon you say? I think I can cut you a deal. I'll provide you Hidan's antitoxin if you provide me with a good sample of his blood. I can use it to test antidotes for my sea snake venom against."

Suddenly all the nervousness in Deidara's body seemed to vaporize. Blood. That was all Sasori wanted, and it was, surprisingly, possible. The half demon was already bleeding, and though unconscious, the blonde was sure he wouldn't mind giving up a little bottle of blood in exchange for such a vital antidote. Giving the buds inside his upper lip a quick nibble, Deidara quickly agreed, accepting the cure from Sasori's slightly reluctant grip before beating a rather hasty retreat, clutching a little blue bottle to his chest as he powered back towards the island where the unconscious hanyou hopefully still waited.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 -

Very slowly, very gradually did the consciousness return to the hanyou as his mind worked furiously to overcome the agony that had so suddenly and overwhelmingly gripped his leg the instant he had been cast overboard. His dry, burning eyes eventually creaked open and he looked up at a stormy, purple sky as the spinning in his skull took its time to quell. Feeling rather like a sheet hung out in the wind, Inuyasha could only wait patiently as the feeling returned to most of his body and his muscles began to again obey his orders. He found that his head was heavier than a lead weight, his chest ached and his joints were stiff; but at the very least he was awake.

His foggy mind began to remember. He remembered the bay and being knocked overboard into it. He remembered a flurry of tackle, fins and scales. He remembered the debilitating sting of something sinking into his leg and slowly realizing that he was poisoned as he sunk still deeper. He remembered hands; he had thought to be Miroku's hauling him up. Then nothing; he'd blacked out and lost his vision and thought entirely.

As he rolled his skull around to look at what beach he had washed up on, the half demon found the dark sand unfamiliar, as were the crags on all sides and the placid waters that tickled his feet. Of course the surroundings weren't the only thing he noticed; looking down he realized that there was nothing to cover the lower half of his body and on top of that, a stranger lay between his legs. Immediately Inuyasha sat bolt-upright and scooted backwards in the sand, clutching at the ends of his now dry and crusted, scarlet robe to pull it down over his private genitals. He stared, sputtered, gasped and fought to swallow the pain that flared up in his leg as he failed miserably to come up with a thing to say to the sick lecher who would strip the clothes off an unconscious man and stare at his personals.

Of course the initial kind of shock didn't last long as he found the blonde man that had been basking between his feet very stunningly familiar. He suddenly registered the long, spotted tail, almost completely submerged in the shallow cove, and immediately recognized the merman that he had rescued from the beach only a day ago. That first shock dissolved away into gut-wrenching disgust and his look of fear folded into a scornful frown.

"You!" Inuyasha hissed, his ears folding backward as he brought his uninjured leg up to further shield his groin from the curious eyes of the ningyo. "You ungrateful pervert! What the hell did you do to me?"

Deidara blinked in utter astonishment, his face showing that he was greatly taken aback by the harsh, accusatory words of the man who's life he had just saved. Still he refused to make a sound, instead lifting himself up on one extended arm so that he sat up on what might have been his hip if he had been born with legs. Instead of arguing for his innocence aloud, the blonde male extended his free hand forward, gesturing first to the crimson hakama, folded neatly and within reach to Inuyasha's left, and secondly to the half-dried kelp leaves wrapped around the half demon's left thigh.

The hanyou could feel his own revolted anger ebbing as he reached out with one hand he could spare from holding his robe over his crotch to touch gingerly at the makeshift bandage. Though the entire leg still seared with pain, he could tell that there was an agent to the seaweed wrapped around his limb that quelled the agony. Another motion from the blonde caught his attention and he looked up to see the merman holding out a little blue bottle with a black cork in the open end. Carefully Inuyasha accepted the offering and turned the vial around in his hand before returning to look at the ningyo on the beach. Deidara was busy concentrating on tracing a clawed finger through the sand, eventually forming a Japanese character. It took a little tilting of his head on the part of the hanyou until he could make out the complex kanji "解毒剤" that represented the word "antidote."

Glancing back at the blue jar in his hand, Inuyasha nodded with understanding.

"So this is the antidote?" His brow furrowing, the silver-haired man turned his eyes back to the merman. "Hey wait… what's the matter? Can't you talk? I remember you said 'thank you' when I rescued you and… well, not gonna think about what happened before that… but you spoke… what's the matter now?"

Deidara smoothed his palm over the first set of characters and leveled out his writing surface before again running his clawed finger through the sand.

"ニード 水"

"You… need water?"

With a smile finally finding its way onto the ningyo's lips, he nodded a few times and suddenly let out an awful screech like the sound of a child in pain. Inuyasha's eyes went wide and his ears flattened back, the horrible sound shocked him and immediately made him concerned for the fish-man's health. A noise so terrible could only have come from a beast that was dying in the worst of agony, but how so, when the blonde was still grinning despite the sharp cry.

"Kami, are you okay? What's the matter now?"

Not wanting to confuse the silver-haired man, Deidara merely gave him a warm smile and tilted his head to the side just slightly. Carefully not to upset the characters he had written on the beach, the merman drew a circle around the kanji to reemphasize that he could not speak above the water. His brow rising, Inuyasha nodded slowly, gradually coming to understand that the vocal chords of merfolk did not function correctly in air the same way he assumed those of a human would not work underwater.

The hanyou was about to ask another question of the koi tail, but an outwardly extended palm prevented him. Without a word, of course, Deidara quickly excused himself, retreating awkwardly back into the water. To minimize how foolish he looked trying to maneuver in the shallows, the ningyo merely crawled out until he could bury his gills in the water and refresh the oxygen in his blood. For nearly two minutes he lay face-down, barely submerged in the shallows. Inuyasha would have said he was looking on the corpse of a drowned fool if he didn't know better. Eventually, the blonde hauled himself up out of the water again, lurching up the beach like a bloated sea lion until finally his dripping body came to rest where it had before and he gave Inuyasha a contented smile.

"So you've got to go take a breath every now and again I guess."

The ningyo nodded, pleased at how well the half demon was catching on so quickly even without being told.

"So do you save people often?"

Deidara looked down and shook his head somberly. Far too often he was far too late to save what humans he came across from drowning, but that wasn't something that could be readily helped.

"And… uh… well I don't know what to call you…"

Again the sands were wiped clean and the merman's claw wound through the shore.

"デイダラ"

"Dei-da… Deidara?"

Said man's mouth stretched into the widest of grins and he nodded vigorously to show he was pleased that the half demon understood his name. Gleefully his spine arched such that his beautifully colored tail curled up out of the water before splashing back with a loud slap. Suddenly Deidara held up his hand again to prevent himself from being interrupted as his free palm smoothed the surface he'd been using to write on. Working quickly, he sketched out a few more characters into the dark sand.

"居座る"

"Stay here?" Inuyasha smirked and gave a nearly sarcastic sounding snort, "don't worry, I'm not going anywhere with his leg."

No sooner had the words left his lips than again the ningyo had turned around and was struggling through the sand back to the crystalline waters. With a bit of thrashing from the elegant tail, Deidara managed to escape into the deeper waters towards the center of the cove. Trailing a hand out after the other, the hanyou would have called out to ask where he was going had he thought it would have done him any good. Like most people, Inuyasha was greatly opposed to the idea of being abandoned on a strange shore without any way to move or fend for himself.

Still, he did not fret too much as the merman never once left the inlet, signified by the way that he breached the surface several times as he dove into deeper waters. On more than one occasion the half demon found himself staring, watching with wide-eyed wonderment as the well-designed creature broke the surface and arched through the air, his skin and scales glistening in the pink light of the evening. It was like watching the majesty of nature at work, and ever breach was a marvel and a thrill.

Inuyasha's trance was finally broken as the actions finally ceased and again the blonde returned to shore awkwardly. Hanging by their tails from the ningyo's mouth were two moderately sized fish, perhaps three pounds each, one in bright red and the other in glittering silver. Careful not to let his wriggling catch graze the sand, Deidara hauled himself up to rest in an upward-facing-dog like position, tilting his head as if prompting Inuyasha to select his preference. In grateful astonishment, the hanyou brushed the gritty sand from his right hand to take a firm grip on the wriggling, silver fish. With yet another wide grin, the ningyo led by example, taking his catch and giving the writhing animals a sharp bite to the spine just behind its head. The fish immediately went still aside from its gills which still moved as an involuntary reflex even after the body was dead.

Glancing up, the merman checked to make sure that his charge was satisfied with eating fish raw, as he was, before beginning on his own meal. With a bit of a victorious snarl, the blonde began by using his strong teeth to strip the sharp fins off of his prey. When the spiny cartilage had all been torn away, the ningyo quickly devoured the fish whole, gulping the food down his wide gullet. Curiously Deidara watched the hanyou as he worked to eat his own meal, gnawing around the bones and discarding the least desirable of the guts that would leave a foul aftertaste if chewed. The merman watched Inuyasha eat with the same wonderment as the other man had been watching him hunt. It was strange, like the first meeting of two separate worlds and each was completely fascinated with the other.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 -

The next two days passed in a kind of co-exploration complemented by the lull of Inuyasha's rapidly healing envenomation. The actual punctures healed up after the first 28 hours, making it impossible for Deidara to continue treating the half demon with the antitoxin, but still he monitored the other man's progress and provided for his needs. The blonde had stayed nearby, making his nest for the night amongst a mat of sea grasses just inside the mouth of the bay where the clear waters were of a moderate depth. By the third day, Inuyasha was able to again put weight on his injured leg, though the joint remained very inflamed and painful to move. Still it allowed him to move along the beach if only to find fresh sand into which a new waste pit could be dug. By noon on the third day, Inuyasha was finally able to begin moving around again; but upon the recommendation of his ningyo caretaker, his first steps were into the bath-like salt waters.

Removing his clothing so that they would remain dry and folding them on the shore, Inuyasha ventured slowly out into the water, wading out until he could lower himself completely into the brine and pull himself along in sluggish weightlessness. The reduced gravity underwater made the silver-haired man sigh and relax as the pull on his aching thigh was suddenly reduced to nothing. Using the increased buoyancy beneath the surface, Inuyasha walked through the little cove until the waters reached up to his pectorals. Of course all the while the merman was by his side to keep him steady, not that there was any fear of falling in the water, but precautions were in place.

Finally the hanyou let himself go, sinking in the sun-warmed water up to his shoulders and finally ducking completely below the surface. Blowing a few bubbles out of his nose, the half demon took a moment to adjust to the sudden silence; no waves rolling out to sea, no gulls calling overhead, nothing but the low echoes of the distant currents rubbing sides against one another. The silence didn't last long, however as he blinked his eyes open and found himself face-to-face with the young ningyo that had rescued and cared for him so diligently. Deidara wore an enthused smile and his long, blonde tresses flowed around him like liquid gold. The merman opened his mouth, and where Inuyasha had come to expect an excided or gleeful shriek, instead came the velvety voice of a man.

"Finally your ears are underwater; I hardly know enough kanji to keep drawing in the sand un."

Inuyasha lurched slightly, he had nearly forgotten that while submerged, the ningyo could speak as he could above the surface. Ignoring the startled look on his counterpart's face, Deidara continued.

"It's been a little frustrating from time to time, but I can talk to you now, so it's all worth it right un?" The half demon blinked at the other male as if still astonished that words were coming from his lips. The blonde gave a quiet grunt moved forward just a little bit. Without waiting for a reaction this time, Deidara nudged the half demon's jaw with his nose, shoving him upwards gently. "Go take a breath, I don't mind speaking in parts un."

Simply giving the other man a nod, Inuyasha returned to the surface to fill his lungs accompanied by the merman who simply poked his head above the water and gave his head a quick shake to clear his ears. Inuyasha took in a few gasping breaths before turning his gaze back to the blonde who simply gave him a soft smile.

"Uh… sorry about these past few days… I'm sure saving my stupid ass has been the last thing you would have liked to have been doing… Also I apologize; I'd completely forgotten that you could speak." Being certain to load his lungs as full as they could be, again Inuyasha plunged underwater such that the other could reply.

"Think nothing of it; I owe you my own life, it's been the very least I could do to help you to recover un… but at the same time, I'm finding myself learning more and more about landfolk, and that's reward enough in and of itself. But I have to tell you, watching you and all has raised more questions than it has answered. Do you mind un?" When Inuyasha shook his head 'no,' the ningyo gave a happy hum. "First of all, I always knew that humans and the like had legs instead of fins, but if you don't mind me asking, what purpose serve the loose folds of flesh between the legs un?" The silver-haired man nearly choked on his held breath; the sudden attention being brought to his unguarded loins having taken him entirely by surprise. Pushing off the gritty bottom, Inuyasha launched himself upwards and broke the surface, spraying water off of his lips as he blew the old air from his lungs. Again the blonde followed, giving the other man a confused and inquisitive look.

"D-Deidara, why the hell would you ask something like that?" The merman's brows only furrowed as he gave Inuyasha a look of pure, innocent misunderstanding. The mixture of anger and fear in the hanyou's eyes and posture gradually relaxed as he began to realize that the other male only asked out of candid curiosity. With a sigh, he put up his hands between the two of them and closed his eyes as if he couldn't believe he was going to even humor the thought of explaining the lower organs' function. "Look, it's… really complicated and stuff… and I'm not one to go explaining all that shit…" Averting his eyes, Inuyasha attempted to keep his face from heating up as he still received a look of pleading curiosity from the young man in the water. "Fine… I'm not giving you the whole story, but if I tell you, you have to quit looking at me like that." So as to buy a little time, the half demon scratched the back of his neck. "It… it's part of how we piss, but not just that… it's got to do with… with reproduction and all that stuff too…"

The merman tilted his head for a moment before finally closing his eyes and nodding to show that he understood and needed no further explanation. With enough said, the pair slipped underwater again as to allow Deidara his turn at speaking again.

"I understand. Humans are a more private species as I have come to learn, and I do not hold it against you un. Another question then… It has been a while since I analyzed your healing progress orally, and I feel that I ought to ask your permission to do so as it might be an undesired invasion of your private space un. Though I have observed humans connecting mouths as a display of affection, I can assure you that it serves an entirely different purpose for the ningyo un…" Deidara's tail waved as if in nervousness as he forced the words into the open, afraid that the reserved nature of man-kind would make the action off-putting. "I only want to taste for any poison still in your body, and since you are no longer bleeding, the easiest way would be through the mouth un."

Without giving his caretaker a reaction, Inuyasha returned to the surface for a fresh breath before he even began to consider the koi tail's proposition. Inside there was a tumult of conflicting opinions. On one hand, he was repulsed that another male whom he had only known for three or so days had expressed a desire to invade his mouth _again._ However, he also rationalized that Deidara had made it clear that it was merely to gather physical information, not to transmit an immediate desire. Still another part of him was utterly dismayed that there wasn't to be any intimate wishing behind such an action as on some very private level he had even enjoyed the first, rather surprising kiss they had shared. There was not a single doubt in his mind that the ningyo man was attractive in every part of his human-like form, and the tail that took up his lower half was alluring in its own exotic manner. It was strange and frightening to be finding such stunning beauty in another creature so soon after his abandonment by Kagome, more so given that Deidara was male. And yet as deep inside himself as he had forced it, that attraction was there.

The emotions churning in the pit of his belly made the question even harder to answer, but as usual, Inuyasha's rash heart was speaking louder than his rational mind, and as the blonde merman broke the surface to hear his reply, he took a hold of the lean, gently tanned shoulders. He pulled the ningyo man in close to himself and with his lips parted.

"It's fine with me Deidara, please… taste my mouth… I won't mind…" His voice, low and gruff, said one thing but conveyed another. Of course on the surface level he was giving the other man permission to analyze his health through the ningyo's exclusive sensory organ, but the emotion behind the words was one of subtle, uncertain desire.

Only hearing the brash words made the blonde nearly choke on his own water, but at the same time it stirred up feelings in his own gullet. Of course males of his species were not granted to be picky when it came down to the gender of their intimate partners given the overwhelming ratio of males to females. At the same time, such closeness was typically shared between couples, and Deidara had not selected a partner and as such had felt neither the passion not the pleasure of physical relations. Still the very notion made his blood pull furiously through his veins. Taking one of the biggest chances of his life, the blonde accepted the open offer.

Moving slowly and closing his eyes, the young merman gradually closed the gap between them, sealing their open mouths together and tentatively, pushing his rough tongue into Inuyasha's waiting mouth. Of course the half demon had experienced kisses of the deep and passionate nature before in his long lifetime, but there was something entirely differently about this. The movements of the ningyo's sandpaper-like tongue were completely foreign, not like the actions of a virgin, but more like shared intimacy wasn't the aim of the ministrations. Firstly the coarse muscle grazed over the inner sides of his upper teeth before the very tip slid over the ridges on the roof of Inuyasha's mouth. Still the merman's tongue continued its exploration of the hanyou's cavity, finally coming to a point that seemed to have built up to. Deidara slipped his rough muscle across the inside of the other man's lip as if looking to taste the Jacobson's organ he had expected to find there. Instead the flesh was as soft and tender as the rest of the half demon's mouth.

Startled at the lack of bumpy taste buds on the inner lip, the ningyo suddenly pulled back from the connection and looked into Inuyasha's eyes with an expression of concerned confusion. His cerulean eyes darted back and forth across the other male's face as if silently searching for an explanation. Instead, the merman was met with the golden eyes of the hanyou, suddenly shouldering with a tempting cocktail of affection and lust. Without offering any response, the silver-haired man gave Deidara's shoulders a firm tug and pulled the other body close again leading this time as he mashed their lips together. The half breed cleverly slipped his tongue through the parted jaws of the handsome creature in his hands, feeling the ningyo tense up suddenly, but gradually relax and relinquish himself to the gentle touch.

Though he couldn't claim to not have been surprised by the secondary action, it would have been a terrible lie to say that the blonde did not enjoy the sudden kiss. He was completely astonished to find that instead of rigid and sandpaper-like, Inuyasha's tongue was soft, warm and slippery, much the way his lips were. The feeling was totally new and gentle yet brash and full of the sweet and spicy taste of lust. Deidara shuddered at the very sensation and nearly squealed as the hanyou followed his earlier example and ran his hot, wet tongue across the textured organ behind his upper lip. The very act flooded the merman's senses with all the rugged, masculine, passionate hormones that rolled off of Inuyasha in waves. The sparks coming from his perceptive lip set a foreign fire in the koi tail's deep center, and as if suddenly finding the directions given to him by instinct, he wrapped his arms around the other man's shoulders and began to return the profound kiss.

Inuyasha let a surprised grunt rumble in the back of his throat as his tongue was met with that of the other man and his shoulders were squeezed by the other set of arms. The invasive muscle grazed against his tongue, but in that strange, probing way Deidara tended towards. It was as if their mouths were speaking two different languages, but somehow harmony was made from the cacophony and passion flourished. The supple organs rolled and ground against one another as if in the heated dance of starving lovers, and quiet murmurs and squeaks of pleasure arose from either man as the kissing continued well past the limit of Inuyasha's lungs.

Even so, all good things must come to an end; and the hanyou's capacity for self-torment in the name of bliss could only be taken so far. When finally the two separated and Inuyasha was able to recapture his breath, both parties locked eyes yet again, and suddenly the merman felt himself wishing very much that he could speak without water so that he could tell the other man how content he felt. Instead, the ningyo simply let the grip he had on the other male's shoulders slide until he was embracing the half demon's torso and buried his nose in Inuyasha's clavicle and nuzzled the warm skin tenderly.

The very moment of shared passion and pleasure had suddenly stirred up very unfamiliar feelings in the very bottom of his belly, and all at once Deidara had become very unsure. The strange concoction of never touched emotions made the blonde longing and afraid at the same time. The only thing he could feel to do about it was to cling loyally to the stomach of only creature that could make him feel as he did. Churning in his gut was strange and frightening and thrilling and confusing, but still Deidara didn't want to let go.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 -

There were not twenty four hours between when the pair had shared that one, brief moment of shared passion and when Inuyasha's system was declared to be free of toxins. Though there had been some tissue damage, leaving his left leg considerably weaker than the right, he was able to walk effectively without causing himself pain. Of course that's not to say that he took advantage of the newfound ability to move freely, he spent the vast majority of his time in the little cove for 'rehabilitation' purposes. Of course Deidara made no protest, merely circling the man lazily while he exercised the damaged thigh, brushing him teasingly with the ruffled end of his tail whenever he became bored.

There came a time, however, as the day was cooling off and the stars were gradually beginning to pick their ways across the deepening hues of the sky, when a troubling notion came into Deidara's mind. With a prompt cry, the blonde called Inuyasha, who had been marveling in the beauty of the early sunset from the beach, back into the waters. With the gravity of his sudden realization weighing heavy on him, like a stone in his gullet, the ningyo gave the arm of his charge an urgent tug. The hanyou only chuckled, finding the sudden insistence to be relatively charming, unaware of the importance of what Deidara was so impatient to tell him.

When finally he dipped his head under the water such that he could hear the other man's urgent information, he was startled by the lines of worry creasing the merman's brow. Gently the young ningyo reached out and caressed the other male's cheek with the edges of his pointed claws as if trying to soothe him even before he expressed what it was that troubled his mind.

"Inuyasha… you are cured of your poisoning un… and this was my initial purpose… do you not now believe it is time that you returned to the mainland un? Do not think for a moment that by this I mean that I wish for you to leave… I just want for you to know that you are no prisoner hear, and at your first whim, I will carry you back to the true shore un."

The hanyou stared disbelievingly at Deidara, as if his words were spoken in a different language and simply made no sense. Gradually the lack of breathing began to give Inuyasha a pain in his chest and he was forced to the surface, sucking in several deep breaths white the merman too surfaced and watched, waiting nervously for a response. When finally his breathing evened out, the half demon looked down at his companion's worried face, his own brow becoming creased as the new thought was forced into his brain. Truthfully, he hadn't even begun thinking about what the next step would be after he had healed entirely, and to be entirely frank, there was a part of him that wished not to leave the alcove very much. There was something about being secluded with the other male that made him hope that their time together might last for an eternity, but surely that could not be so. As fond of, and attracted to Deidara as he was, the hanyou _did_ have friends back on the mainland who would be worrying for his sake. If given enough reason to be concerned, Inuyasha wouldn't put it past Miroku to sail into the bay with a harpoon rig and begin to kill the merfolk until he was given his friend's whereabouts. As much as he hated to admit it, there was a point to the blonde's words.

Sighing, the silver-haired man let his shoulders slump slightly, sinking in the brine until he was at eyelevel with the other male. Carefully so as not to harm the delicate face of the ningyo, Inuyasha brushed the golden tresses away from Deidara's face so that both of his bright cerulean eyes were clearly visible.

"You… you're right… as much as I hate to admit it, Deidara, I do have to go back… my friends will be worried sick by now…" He could tell that his words made the blonde rather sad as his eyes turned downward dejectedly. "Hey, kid…" The half demon murmured, tucking his index knuckle beneath the ningyo's chin and tilting his head upward such that their eyes met once again. "I didn't ever say that I didn't want to stay here… I do… but don't you believe that my friends deserve to know that I'm alive?" Still with a bit of a disappointed frown turning the corners of his lips downward, the blonde nodded, knowing that such things were the unavoidable truth.

There was suddenly a pair of warm lips pressing against Deidara's clammy cheek as the hanyou leaned in to give the merman's skin an affectionate peck. Inuyasha gave the back of the other male's golden head a tender stroke, making the koi tail give a little squeak of surprise, though the noise was in no way negative.

"Tomorrow, whenever you are ready, you may swim me ashore… but I would like it very much if you would wait for me… As for right now, I believe it is about time that you gave me another check, to make sure that the poison is truly gone…"

As the words were leaving the silver-haired man's lips, Deidara could feel the churning tightness in his gut that he had felt only the evening previous, and simply for sanction of reaffirming the feeling, grazed his own tongue over his Jacobson's organ. The taste of the hanyou's masculinity and lust was fresh from the night before and put shivers down Deidara's spine. Nervously, his hands cupped behind the half demon's neck and he gave a brief tug so as to coax the other underwater. As Inuyasha obeyed silently, exhaling a few bubbles from his nose as he submerged, he suddenly became aware of warmth he had never felt in the ningyo's skin. For the most part, the blonde remained a lukewarm temperature, matching the water in which he lived; but suddenly his body heat exceeded that of the cove, and it felt soothingly hot as the merman nuzzled his cheek and jaw affectionately.

The gentle nudging only lasted a moment before again the tow mouths were connected and the very different tongues met for the third time. Though Inuyasha remained silent, save for the bubbles that sprung from his mouth and nose, all the while Deidara made quiet sounds of contentment, humming into the kiss in a way that expressed the new emotion of desire that filled his roiling belly.

The dawn broke with a spiteful brightness on the glittering expanse of saltwater, forcing the eyes of the half submerged hanyou open as the new sun squeezed light between his loosely shut lids. There was a general awkwardness between the two as the day they had agreed upon had finally arrived yet both were reluctant to see the parting through. Deidara still performed his natural hunting ritual to provide for the hanyou's needs, but his own stomach was still to mixed up from the past two nights for him to have any want of food. Instead, he lay patiently in the shallows and watched the silver-haired male as he ate, silently telling himself that it was all for the better, that he had been planning to release his charge the whole time and second thoughts ought not to be humored.

By the time the sun burned high in the sky, even all of his internal deliberation had not helped the ningyo to feel better about parting ways with Inuyasha. Still there was that foreign feeling that somehow the strange and marvelous sensation of being held and kissed by the land male could never be equaled by any other creature of land, air or sea. As many have said before, '_the first cut is the deepest_,' but at the same time, it was not in the nature of merfolk to attribute much to the theory of love. Such personal relationships were infrequent as the main driving force behind intimacy was faceless satisfaction given by the pleasurable recreation of rubbing skin on skin. There was little connected personally in the functions of the ningyo, of course they were all just animals satisfying their instincts, right? Their lives were far too long for any sense of loyalty to one mate to survive once the pleasure faded.

At the same time, as mating and reproduction were not tied together, there was very little sense of responsibility to one creature or another. Of course there was a singular obligation for a father to protect his spawn until the ningyo larva hatched, but afterwards, care of the juvenile is again transferred to the female which provides nourishment to the underdeveloped infant through protein-rich milk. As such, even after offspring are created, there is still very little loyalty between the parents, and once the young ningyo is chased off, it would be as if the bond between mother and father had never existed. In this respect, Deidara was at odds about the sudden desire he had to continue his general relations with the hanyou. It was as if with the sudden exposition of raw and strange emotions, all of nature was defying itself and a ningyo, a man of the sea was feeling _intimate loyalty_ towards a _half demon_ of the _land_ who, to make matters all the more unnatural, was _male_.

The forbidden fruit was always the sweetest. And yet, there was nothing sinful about this apple, it was simply a very drastic deviation from the normal instincts of merfolk for Deidara to be so attracted to him that is was completely unheard of.

Still the time for Inuyasha to be delivered back to his home on the mainland was eminent, and after the hanyou had finished his late breakfast the moment was upon them. Not minding as much that his clothing was getting soaked, the silver-haired man waded out into the cove where instantly the koi-tail was circling his legs, feeling the scarlet fabric of the hakama with sensitive fingers and lips. When finally his head emerged from the brine, the blonde gave Inuyasha a look that silently asked if he truly had to leave. The half breed smiled softly and ran his thumb across the tender cheek of the merman, wiping away a bead of saltwater that still clung to his supple skin.

"Hey, kid, don't feel so bad… I promise I won't be gone for long. If you wait for me near the coast, I'll be back as soon as I've assured my friends that I'm alright. Is that alright with you?"

The forlorn look on the ningyo's face instantly dissolved into a wide grin his throat erupted with a very high-pitched squeal of delight. Almost not realizing it, the blonde male threw his arms around Inuyasha's torso and arched his spine backwards, churning his tail in the water to give him a little extra height such that he could reach the half demon's lips with his own. Though the peck was brief and chaste, it was full of obvious warmth, not only desire but honest affection.

Linking arms back to back the way they had originally, the merman swum his fully recovered charge back to shore in a matter of minutes, though at his full speed, he was quite exhausted afterwards. Once Inuyasha had waded ashore from the shallows, the ningyo kept his word and remained close to the shore, watching the breaking waves from a safe distance while waiting for the half demon to return as he had assured the blonde he would.

Still further out in the bay, there was unrest brooding amongst the Akatsuki. There was a kind of anticipation that put every one of the pod on edge; scraps were far more frequent between the merfolk and tempers were relatively short. It was clear and evident to anyone who so much as looked upon her, but Konan was beginning to grow round with the growing roe within her body, causing the fierce anticipation of the season of _must_. As such, the male hormones were raging and a kind of subconscious feud struck out between all of the mermen.

Of course Deidara, having spent the past four days apart from his pod to care for the injured half demon, was completely unaware of the impending season and the prospect of new posterity among his clan. Of course with the distraction of Inuyasha riddling his young mind, there was no guarantee that even had he known of the imminent spawn to be delivered unto the Akatsuki, he would pay the attempt at fertilizing the ova any mind. So focused he was on the new fascination with the hanyou that he might be totally blinded to instinct to father an offspring.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 -

Though he regretted leaving the merman alone in the shallows of the mainland coast, he did so and bid the young blonde his temporary farewell, promising again that he would return in less than a day's time; and if nothing else, he was true to his word. Not so much as bothering to dry his sopping robes after the long swim back to the shore of the bay, Inuyasha instead allowed the speed of the air that blew past as he pelted back to Kaede's village where hopefully the priestess and the monk would still be waiting. Even as he ran at his very highest comfortable speed, the distance between the small town and the Sagami was very great, and he only came to the village elder's stoop after a half-hour of constant running. His robes had dried to a rather salty crust, his hair had the mineral crystals thick in every tress and everywhere his skin was dry and itched fiercely. Of course it was worth it, the sooner he could affirm his safety to his friends, the sooner he could return to the fascinating creature that waited for him just beyond the beach. Still, what he would not tell Deidara was the secondary reason he had for visiting the village; while he was in town, the half demon planned to probe Kaede's mind for all her knowledge of the ningyo.

Throwing the cloth aside from the priestess's doorway, Inuyasha entered her quaint abode without so much as announcing himself. The half-dozing elder's head shot up immediately at the sound of intrusion, only to find a rather frosted-looking half demon sitting himself by her fire as if he had been invited. There were no objections from Kaede, though any person who had not taken vows to share all that was theirs would surely have been less than compliant. Quietly, the one-eyed woman lifted a rod used for prodding the embers of her fire pit and gave a harsh prod to the wad of blankets that rose and fell in the corner of her home.

"Wake up Miroku! After five days lost at sea, our good friend Inuyasha returns without a word of greeting!" When the mass lurched and immediately the raven-haired monk exploded from beneath the woolen blanket, the elderly miko chuckled to herself with a mischievous glint in her one good eye. She quickly turned the rod on Inuyasha, poking him firmly in the chest with the dull end of the ashy pole and trying to phase a reaction out of him. "Come now Inuyasha, been washed away for so many days and you still haven't the decency to say 'hello' when you visit an old friend? Shame… I would have expected for living with animals to have taught you some appreciation for manners."

The half demon growled quietly and grabbed the end of the metal shaft to keep it from poking at his chest still more, but he gave the miko a friendly smile all the same. With a quick tug he snatched the fire-poking-stick from Kaede's weak palm and used it to adjust the embers that still glowed in the little hearth.

"Don't be so quick to pass judgment, ya-old bat," he snorted as sparks flew up from the coals and flames again began to lick at what unburned of the sticks in the fire pit. "They're more human than you'd expect from a bunch of fish-people." Though mostly lighthearted, there was a defensive undertone to the hanyou's voice; still he did not like to hear of Deidara being called an animal, even if by all rights, he was. At the same time, he was more than another fish; the ningyo were a sentient and, from what he had learned from his time spent in the alcove, gentle people. He caught himself daydreaming for a moment about the blonde, wishing to be back by the seaside again, and had to shake himself to bring his mind back to the present.

"Look who's got a soft spot for his fishy captors" Miroku nearly slurred as he stifled a wide yawn, clapping his friend across his shoulder. "So, let's hear about it! Were you whisked away to an enchanting oasis by a beautiful young ningyo maiden?" The half demon grunted and gave the embers a fierce jab.

"Feh, no such of a thing" he replied, looking over his shoulder and itched the back of his neck where his salty hair rested awkwardly on his nape. "I was taken care of by a mer_man_… not a mermaid."

"Oh, well that's too bad I suppose… I have been waiting on pins and needles to tell you about one that helped me. Boy was she beautiful, if only she had legs and lungs, I'd have shown her how to use them, if you know what I mean." He gave Inuyasha's bicep a prodding nudge with his elbow and looked at him in a kind of sideways fashion that let Inuyasha know his perverse meaning. The half demon only grunted and rolled his eyes, twisting his mouth to the side as if to tell the lecherous monk that he disapproved, though at the same time he couldn't help the qualm of his own hypocrisy that stirred in his stomach.

Still for a single instant that thought leapt into his mind; he imagined what Deidara would look like with the lower body of a human in place of his exotic tail. He couldn't help but swallow a lump that had subconsciously risen in his throat as the, rather sexual, image danced in his brain, aided by the suggestion of his near friend. He had to break himself out of the thought, quickly turning to look at Miroku and give him a scornful frown.

"You're a pig, Miroku, what ever happened to Sango? What ever happened to _'I'm going to marry that woman if it's the last thing I do!'_ hm? Gonna give up on that to go chasing after fish are you?"

"You know as well as I do that I could marry Sango any time I want," the Buddhist smirked and leaned back against the wooden wall of Kaede's hut. "It's just a matter of getting all of the fun out of life before I decide to settle down. Besides, all I have to do is pop the question and she'll practically jump into my arms." With a victorious smile on his lips, Miroku folded his hands behind his head and crossed his legs comfortably, assured that he'd won the duel of wits. "So enough about me… tell us the story of your long captivity by the _savage_ ningyo tribe." Of course it was clear that he didn't mean the insult in his heart, somehow knowing that Inuyasha had a soft spot for the merfolk made the monk simply want to poke at the weakness in his friend's armor for sanction of its existence.

The half demon snorted indignantly, but wouldn't give his companion the benefit of seeing him snap again about improperly titling the ningyo.

"Well for starters, it wasn't a tribe at all, just one male. He pulled me ashore and treated where I got stung with an antidote and brought me food and went about his merry way. He didn't talk much… They can't speak out of the water you know… Anyway, he stuck around until my leg was better and all then swam me back here."

"Well that doesn't sound exciting at all," the raven-haired man mused having hoped for a daring escape from a bloody death or really _anything_ more eventful than Inuyasha's story. Still little to Miroku's knowledge, there was far more to the tale than his friend was letting on, but the half demon would be the last to tell the other man that several times he had kissed the merman in the most deep and intimate of ways. Such stories Inuyasha planned to take to his grave if he possibly could… but how, when the story was not over yet; he still was going back to Deidara, he only needed a few answers first.

"Well if my story is so boring to you, why don't you go for a walk? I gotta talk to the hag for a minute." Miroku gave his companion an inquisitive look but when he saw how Inuyasha's eyes asked him for privacy, he shrugged it off and wordlessly quit the scene, leaving the other two in discretion. Once he was sure the other man was gone, the half breed let out a sigh and let his shoulders slump as if with the monk gone he was free of some pressing burden. "Kaede… what can you tell me about merfolk?"

Rubbing her wrinkled chin in meditation, the priestess sat back for a moment as she thought. Eventually she rocked to creaky feet and slowly ambled over to a shelf that seemed to be sagging under the weight of countless scrolls and tomes. Eventually she drew a very large roll of yellowed paper from the rack and passed the heavy volume to Inuyasha.

"This is an ancient scroll of magical creatures. It is mostly full of demons and spirits, but if there is any information in this house on the ningyo, it is in that scroll. They were once thought to be magical sea spirits, so I would not think they could be excluded." As the hanyou accepted the scroll from her hands, the priestess's brow furrowed for a moment, her lips twisting slightly before allowing him to have it entirely. "Be very careful with that tome… its writings are very old and some of the diagrams and practices you may read about might not be completely accurate." As she sat cattycorner to Inuyasha, she stroked her own withered knees through her bright red hakama, staring at him as if trying to find what he was thinking. "I wonder what it is you plan on using that scroll for, Inuyasha. It is not a toy to be trifled with…"

"It is only in curiosity," he muttered, waving her off slightly as he began to unravel the roll of paper. "I plan on returning to the bay and observing the merfolk a little more. They've caught my interest and I only want to learn more." With that he returned to spinning through the scroll in search of a section about ningyo.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 -

When he finally found the point in the scroll during which the author switched his focus to the ningyo, Inuyasha couldn't help himself but begin to read. Though he had told himself he wouldn't begin reading until he was back on the beach, the prospect was simply too tempting. The section was rich with illustrations and diagrams that had been compiled by whoever it was that had researched the merfolk long ago, and though the depictions were less than accurate, the accounts of the creatures' behaviors proved to be very through. Where there were drawings of the ningyo, they appeared rather fat in most cases, like bloated fish with the heads of ape-like men. Among the sketches was a single diagram that showed the way to flay a ningyo to be eating and listed the most supple and sweat meats of the body.

There was an all too familiar legend amongst the notes of a girl who had eaten the meat of a merman caught by the friend of her father. The girl had remained young and beautiful for over 800 years before simply disappearing like dust in the wind. Though entertained by the myth, Inuyasha had to snort at the fabrication as the legend had been dispelled many years ago after its first release when a storm of fishermen had taken to the bay to hunt for the '_fish-of-eternal youth_'. When the claims of the first story proved false, the hunting of merfolk became a taboo and their poaching was immediately dropped across the entire continent, much to Inuyasha's current relief.

Further on through the scroll there was a depiction of a rhombus-shaped talisman that was said to transform the ningyo human, however years ago it had been lost in a horrible shipwreck to the deepest, darkest crevice in the bay. The mystical charm worked with contact, and any merman or mermaid who touched it would begin the transformation into human form. After the talisman was lost from the surface world, however, no records could be kept on it. It was theorized that it had been abandoned by the merfolk entirely because transmogrifying into a human at such severe depth would surely cause them to drown.

Reading on, there was an obvious change in authors as the style of writing switched from dominantly kanji to a mixture of katakana and hiragana. The second author spoke of his many hours adrift of the southern coast of Kagoshima. He told stories of how every morning he could watch the ningyo breach out of the water as all across the bay they hunted, schools of fish. He described the technique he observed as a group effort by the pod. Below the surface, the creatures would circle around a school of potential prey while one or two would attack from the surface with the extra speed given to them by breaching. The aim was usually to snatch a panicked fish in their sharp claws or teeth, tough occasionally the purpose was to disperse the school into the waiting hands of their clan members.

The author went on to describe a merman which he befriended who he affectionately named Aoihire. He described the ningyo as a "slender, streamline creature without a hair on his body save for a course mat atop his head" and went into detail about the squealing sounds Aoihire made and what different tones were thought to indicate. Most of these things the hanyou had already learned from the few days he had spent in Deidara's company. However one point did take him by surprise; the scripture told of the merman's apparent affinity for sugar and all things sweet from simple fruits to expensive bean-breads.

Whomever had been writing in the scroll presented his theory that because of constant exposure to salt and the tendency for fish to be a bitter and salty food, that the sweetness of sugars were a rare release from the monotony. Though this theory was correct in some way, Inuyasha couldn't help but also think of how extremely sensitive Deidara was to taste and how a strong sense of _sweet_ could possibly cause a positive reaction as much as the taste of poison caused a negative reaction.

Still he read on and unrolled a series of diagrams that had been painted into the yellowed parchment. At first it was difficult for the hanyou to make heads or tails of the strange markings, most of which belonged to a series of seals written in some ancient dialect. Finally he reached a section of notes on the drawings which explained how these many seals were used to transform merfolk into humans. The scroll described a long process that could be also be applied in reverse to turn a human into a ningyo. Both involved having several different tattoos being burned into the flesh and were permanent. Inuyasha frowned slightly at the complex diagrams, but didn't dismiss it entirely.

Still the scroll rolled on between the half demon's fingers, revealing many more attempts at transmogrifying the creatures into humans. There were quite a few records of failed attempts which had resulted in three different deaths until finally a solution was finally reached. The researcher had finally come across a technique that could be safely applied to ningyo to _temporarily_ change them into a human. Although the process was interesting, it was very complex and only thinking about all of the different symbols that would need to be painted on the sutra nearly gave Inuyasha a headache.

Unraveling more of the scroll again the authors changed, revealing the tiny handwriting that somehow reminded the half demon of Kagome's; perhaps there had once been an intellectual woman who had studies the ningyo. Unlikely. There were only a few articles that described the process of egg laying in the ningyo and how once an egg is laid in a pod how the dominant mail will claim it and fertilize it himself. Not that Inuyasha would have been able to tell the difference, but the few articles made no mention of the season of _must_ or what happens when a pod has no alpha male.

The very last bid on the ningyo described their north and south migrating patterns much like the migrating of some species of tempered water-loving fish. Afterwards, however, the focus switched over to oni, a certain species of ogre-demons known for their horns and crooked fangs. With a satisfied grunt, the hanyou nodded and rolled the ancient tome back together, leaving it at the point where he had been reading about merfolk. Binding the paper together with the string that usually draped across his chest, Inuyasha tucked the scroll under his arm and looked up at the sky, gauging that he had several hours still before the sun began to set. He decided to take the time to gather provisions for camping on the beach for a while; he figured Deidara would be delighted when he returned with enough supplies to last him another week without being fed by the ningyo.

As he wandered into the quaint little village, he found Miroku leaning against the wall of a pottery store and telling the beautiful young shopkeeper of all his valiant deeds, all the while the woman giggled to herself and played coy. Inuyasha grunted and gave a quick flick to his friend's ear where he had a number of gold piercings, causing the monk to yelp and clasp his hand over the offended side of his head.

"Excuse me ma'am" the half demon grunted, "this lecher isn't giving you any trouble, is he?"

The young woman looked away and giggled quietly to herself, covering her mouth to hide her grin.

"Not at all, Master Inuyasha! He was only telling me of his many heroic battles with Naraku."

"And did he also tell you how Naraku was destroyed by the Shikon Jewel?"

"Etto… no, he didn't…"

"Good day ma'am." Inuyasha couldn't help but smirk victoriously to himself as he gave the monk's arm a good tug and dragged him out of the shop before he got a chance to tell the storekeeper more of his "heroic adventures."

"Why must you thwart my every attempt at finding a wife, Inuyasha?" the raven-haired man complained once he'd been given his limb back. The half demon only snorted and flicked his pointed ears in an annoyed response.

"Maybe it's because you already have a woman. All your flirting is starting to wear on my nerves." Miroku gave an indignant grunt and folded his arms.

"So, did you have a good, long chat with Lady Kaede then?"

"Nah, I got this scroll from her though." The half breed shifted the bundle under his arm slightly to show it to the monk, but gave him no further explanation. "Look, I'm gonna be camping on the beach for a while to study the merfolk…"

"That sounds great! It'll be just like old times, you and me, but without the burden of needy womenfolk! I've got a lovely tarp for just such an occasion back at monetary, I can –"

"Alone…" Inuyasha put his hand on Miroku's shoulder to stop his near joyous rambling and hopefully quiet him to a point where he could get a word in edgewise. "I'm going to study the merfolk alone."

Stunned, the other man nearly lost his balance as he took a pace backwards, his face revealing clear shock to the hanyou.

"Wh… if you're going alone, then what am I supposed to do?"

"Go marry Sango," Inuyasha growled with a bit of bitter humor. Of course he didn't want the two getting hitched while he was staying on the beach, he wanted to be there when his friends were wed, but he was getting rather sick of Miroku's lechery at the same time. Whatever the monk did, it better not be with Inuyasha, or any woman other than Sango… of that much he was certain. The younger man was quiet for a long while, looking down dejectedly for a while before replying.

"Alright, I get it. You want you alone time to look at the fishes. I got it. But If I come back with a ring on my finger and you missed it, then that'll be on you, got it?" With a wide, good humored grin the monk gave his friend a friendly shove before turning in the opposite direction and heading back towards the city of Yugata where Sango's current home resided.

Smirking and giving a satisfied nod, Inuyasha went about his own way, gathering all the food, shelter and bedding he would need. After traipsing all around town, he was back on his way to the bay with a loaded pack slung across his shoulders before the sun had gotten much further past midway across the sky. He had sacrificed much of the reward money he had received for slaying troublesome demons, but in the mind of the half breed, the expense was well worth it. By the time the skies had begun to turn into the beautiful pastel violets of late afternoon, Inuyasha had made it successfully back to the shoreline and unloaded his pack while Deidara waited patiently, giving an impatient squeak every now and again.

Among his spoils, Inuyasha had a gray tent that would shield him from the elements in the night, rations for a week and several less necessary trinkets. One of his favorite objects was a curved shaft of bamboo with the middle hewn out such that it served as a snorkel and would allow him to stay with his ears below water for much longer. Another thing he had thought to purchase was a blank roll of parchment, a calligraphy brush and an ink stick and well so that when he took the mind to write, Deidara would not have to draw in the sand. Thinking himself clever, the half demon had taken the advice of the ancient scripture and thought to buy sweet foods such as cherries, honey and raw sugar.

Not wishing to leave the antsy ningyo waiting any longer, the half demon quickly stripped away his clothing and, with a handkerchief full of cherries in one hand and his bamboo snorkel in the other, began fighting past the surf to where Deidara was waiting past the rough waves. When he finally arrived into calmer waters where the bay was chest-deep, the blonde merman let out an excited squeal and dipped underwater to pass through a very quick spin before immerging again and giving the half demon a wide grin. Smiling back, the hanyou shifted the package of fruit in his left hand slightly.

"Hey kid. I told you I'd be back. And lucky you, I brought you a present. Now close your eyes and open your mouth." There was an obviously shocked expression that danced across the young ningyo's face for a moment as he simply jumped to the conclusion that closing his eyes and opening his mouth would lead to yet another passionate kiss. In doing so, he shivered slightly in anticipation and his warm palms reached out to hold either side of Inuyasha's torso.

He was quite surprised, to say the least, when instead of the warm tongue he had come to enjoy being pressed past his quivering lips, came something smooth and foreign. Cerulean eyes immediately flew open and Deidara gasped, only to find Inuyasha smiling softly at him and pushing something strange into his mouth with his thumb and forefinger. There was a moment in which the blonde panicked, not knowing what to make of the new thing between his teeth, but just as he was about to fight back, the other man relieved his pressure and allowed the object to sit on Deidara's rough tongue.

"It's okay kid… it's food. Go ahead and try it." Hesitantly, the merman held the cherry on his tongue for a moment before tilting his head back and letting the little fruit slide down his gullet without so much as letting out the sweet juices. "H-hey!" the hanyou protested, taking a hold of Deidara's jaw as if in doing so he could have prevented the treat from being swallowed. "You're not supposed to swallow it right away, fish-brain. You chew it, like this." With that he demonstrated, popping one of the bright red cherries into his own mouth and chewing it carefully so as not to bite too hard on the pit. When he finally swallowed the mashed up flesh of the fruit, the half demon had a bit of trouble spitting out the large seed, causing some of the rose-colored juices to slip down his chin. "You gotta be careful of the pits though, you'll hurt your teeth if you bite on them too hard." With that he flicked the seed towards shore and dug in the handkerchief for another cherry.

This time as he pressed the red treat against the merman's lips, it was accepted though with a bit of nervous reluctance. Gradually Deidara began to chew, an action he was not at all used to as ningyo simply swallow their food whole down their wide throats, allowing the strong acids in their stomachs to wear away the bones and shells of their prey. As soon as the skin of the cherry was broken, the sweet nectar washed across the blonde's tongue and spread up to his lips, drowning his senses in the beautiful pleasure of sugar. For a moment, he was blown back by the startling sensation that flooded his sensory organ with the foreign, but very delightful taste of happiness. It was saccharine and tangy and strong, making Deidara suddenly shriek for joy and arch his spine backwards until he breached back into the bay and swam several enthusiastic laps around the hanyou before resurfacing. Reluctantly, the merman swallowed and did as he had been shown, spitting the large pit into his palm and tossing it into the brine.

"I guess that means you like cherries, huh?" Inuyasha couldn't help but grin, glad above all other things that he had followed the scroll's advice. "I've got plenty of them, so have as many as you want." With a bit of a dubious smirk, the half breed decided to save his other treats to be a surprise once the cherries had all been eaten. With a joyous squeal, the blonde snatched Inuyasha's shoulders and pulled him quickly into a powerful kiss, absolutely loving the feeling of the fruit juice that still lingered on the hanyou's lips.


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12 -

Days went by filled with an increasing closeness that seemed to bring new learning and increasingly more frequent moments of innocent intimacy between the unlikely pair. Each morning, Inuyasha would cast aside his sleeping robes; cook himself a quick breakfast and splash out into the surf where Deidara would be waiting as surely as the sun would rise. Like a loyal dog which waited all night for his master's return, the merman was joyous beyond belief when Inuyasha would rejoin him in the bay, squealing happily and swimming laps. More often than not, the ningyo would demand a chaste kiss as a way of starting the morning off on a high note. The days passed, filled with a kind of continuing discussion of each creature's world as they swapped stories of their lives on land and at sea.

Strangely, what got Deidara most enthused about the surface world wasn't their social structure or their mating habits or their cuisine, but the expression of self through art. In the culture of the merfolk, art tended to play a very minute role as most mediums are rendered useless by the waters in which the ningyo live. Paints and inks disperse in any water eventually and papers fall into pieces when heavily saturated, clays dissolve to nothing but mud and there can exist no fire below the surface, eliminating metal and glasswork. The only forms of more permanent art Deidara had ever witnessed being created by merfolk were lyric and stone carvings. Yet still neither memory nor rock last forever and songs are forgotten and sculptures erode in the tide. Thus the fact that the men on land had a way of keeping their art for an eternity was baffling.

With the new snorkel secured between his lips, Inuyasha was more than happy to let the merman talk his pointed ears off, though the things Deidara told him were different in nature to the teachings of the surface world. Where the half demon had spent many days telling the ningyo of the workings of the society of men, the blonde retold countless 'flashbulb memories,' quick anecdotes of his own life. Where Inuyasha explained the mechanisms of his home-turf through careful description, the koi-tail did so with a brief recapitulation of his own 200 some odd year long life. Therein too lay the major difference between the worlds; landfolk were a society of beings which relied heavily on the recorded fact and a set of rules written by ancient generations while the merfolk were a culture of creatures who governed their daily lives by loosely fitted morals and primal instinct.

The near constant proximity of the pair bread a kind of rare fondness that was difficult to describe for Inuyasha. The affections of the blonde merman turned more towards his half demon companion with each passing day and vice versa. Though it was strange for the hanyou to suddenly find himself under the attractive pull of a male, let alone a merman, the feeling was less foreign to the blonde. As the ningyo race had always been unbalanced in their ratio of males to females, the concept of two males sharing intimacy was not as bizarre to him, and the fact that Inuyasha was a land creature made the titillating new emotions all the more intriguing. The very sparks that seemed to amplify with each new meeting were identical to the kinds of sparks you would expect to see between two children that have just realized that perhaps the other doesn't have cooties after all. It was unspoken but evident; never mentioned yet ever present; taboo yet blatant. At the same time, however, it didn't need to be said; both knew the sparks were there, after all, they both had eyes.

Inuyasha had the most difficult time adjusting to the fact that he found himself wanting to be with a merman. It was a struggle of morals to some degree. Though it was not as if he had been raised by any family which had taught him that loving another of mankind was sinful; it was simply a social practice to which he had naturally conformed. So strange had it been when first he encountered that man, Jakotsu, from the Band of Seven who had lusted after his body and blood that the very notion of one man laying with another had become an unsung turnoff for the half demon, and yet… there was Deidara who disproved the rule.

The attraction to the young ningyo that seemed to have Inuyasha in its grip was so strong some nights, as he prepared to depart the waters he would hold and kiss the blonde with a kind of surging passion. On one or two occasions, even as he waded out of the brine, having mashed lips and twined tongues with Deidara until his lungs screamed for air, he was dissatisfied. Even as the merman had nuzzled his throat affectionately and bade him goodnight, Inuyasha's heart still pounded in his chest and his hot blood pulled through his veins. Before hauling himself off to sleep, the half demon had slipped off into the woods to sate his own desires under the cover of the dense forest. With the image of Deidara's beautiful and strange body swimming through his mind and the feeling of his hot, salty mouth still fresh on his lips, Inuyasha set himself to satisfy his yearnings in a way that he dare not propose to the ningyo in question.

Despite his nudity and his otherwise openness about his body, such being most natural and common among his people, Deidara did not have any fondness for having his undersides touched. Such naturally ruled out any advancement the hanyou could possibly desire in the nature of a sexual connection. The simple fact was that the ningyo would lurch away at the slightest touch to his soft underbelly, increasingly more so the closer the action came towards his vent. Thought there had been many questions Inuyasha had posed specifically about the merman's anatomy, he had been most intrigued by the tiny orifice just below where the line between skin and scales became blurred. In place of normal human genitalia, Deidara had one simple slit which served all three purposes; it was the opening through which solid and liquid waste was disposed of as well as the release point of reproductive milt. Finding the discussion of the workings of his most decidedly personal place to be rather off-putting, Deidara didn't hold up the conversation for long. Resultantly, the area remained surrounded in a kind of mystery that made Inuyasha fill in the blanks by himself.

Yet even as some topics were narrowly avoided, the conversation never stopped. Even as his skin grew dry and weathered from constant salt exposure, still the hanyou refused to give up his closeness to his newfound companion. On evenings during which his hide was far too irritated to stay out much longer, Inuyasha would scrabble his way along a rocky outcropping that jutted like a peninsula into the bay. Separated from the rough shore that churned the waves so violently, Inuyasha could sit himself near to the water without being far from the blonde. There they continued their seemingly endless conversation well into the night all the while as Inuyasha spooned sweet, golden honey to the merman in the surf just below.

In any case, it has been said before and it will be said again: all good things must come to an end. The food rations of the half demon were dwindling as the week was nearing its close, and on the morning he polished off the last of his food stores, he waded out into the bay and gave his finned friend the news.

"Hey, kid… listen… My food rations have run out, so I'll need to go into town for a day and restock before I can come back…" The merman let out a shrill whine, a sharp note of despair edging the sound such that the cry pierced Inuyasha's heart. Placing the bamboo snorkel between his lips, the half demon ducked underwater, aided by a quick jerk to his dangling tresses from Deidara.

"But Inuyasha, you can't go! Why can't you stay here with me un? I'll bring you fish and keep you fed. Don't you know that un?" His bright blue eyes were piteous and he clung to the hanyou's shoulders as if by simply holding him there he could keep the other man forever. Resurfacing, Inuyasha gently cupped the back of the ningyo's blonde head, holding the course, sopping tresses delicately as if the creature in his palm was made of sodden paper.

"I can't do that, kid. I need to eat more than just fish, all land-dwellers do. We get sick from just eating one thing all the time, we need vegetables and fruits and red meats and stuff. But I promise I'll be back as soon as I've resupplied." Still the merman whined like a pouting child and looked up at Inuyasha with glossy eyes that pleaded for him to stay. Sighing, again Inuyasha slipped underwater.

"If you absolutely must go… then take me with you un…" For a long moment, their gazes locked as if neither could quite understand exactly what had just slipped past Deidara's lips. Nervously, the blonde chewed his bottom lip with his fangs for a moment before the pair resurfaced.

"You know… you know I can't do that kid." Inuyasha grunted, his lips turning downward into the beginnings of a frown. "You know you can't breathe out of the water… Deidara what are you saying? Take you with me? That's not possible." Solemnly he shook his dripping-wet head as if to deny those pleading, cerulean eyes, though looking into them it was very difficult to stay firm and not promise that he would find a way.

"But Inuyasha un… didn't you say there was a way? When you were telling me about the scroll the priestess gave to you un… you said there was a spell to make a ningyo into a man… was it not true un?"

Like a bolt of lightning, the memory jumped into the forefront of Inuyasha's mind. Of course! How had ne not remembered it sooner? The sutras designed by the biologist who had helped to write the manual _had_ to be the key. It was so perfect, wasn't it? So simple it was easy!

"Deidara you're a genius!" He exclaimed, yanking the startled merman above the water and crashing their lips together in sudden exhilaration. Abandoning the stunned ningyo to fight his way back ashore, Inuyasha nearly tripped on the water in his haste to return to the ancient scroll and find the afore mentioned spell. Touching a finger to his own lips, Deidara gave an astonished squeak before re turning to watch as the silver-haired hanyou dove into his tent in search of the desired text. Eagerly the hanyou rolled through the tome until he came upon that section towards the end that showed diagrams of the sutras that had been used to foster the transmogrification. Ignoring the questioning peeps that came from time to time as Deidara tried to understand what exactly he was up to, Inuyasha used his claws to carefully cut away a scrap of blank parchment to be used as the sutra. With a creased brow and a steady hand, he worked to perfectly copy the inscription from the scroll onto the new sutra.

When the seal was copied character for character, symbol for symbol, Inuyasha combed over the instructions before daring to bring the technique to Deidara.

_Prepare the sutra and an adhesive made of tree sap. Remove the ningyo from the water, your work must be swift or the creature will suffocate. Quickly dry the soft spinal skin and the dorsal fin with a cloth. Apply the sap to the blank side of the sutra and press the paper firmly across the shoulders of the ningyo, just above the dorsal fin. Stand back and be prepared to resuscitate as the newly formed lungs are completely collapsed after the transformation is complete. Afterwards you must be certain that the sutra does not become damaged, including by water, or the creature will revert and could die without water nearby._

The directions made Inuyasha nervous at best, but the scroll assured its reader that following the directions explicitly would harbor no ill result or adverse side effect. Warily, Inuyasha gathered a good few ounces of tree sap, tapping into the nearest arbor with his razor-sharp claws and drawing out its sticky blood. With the sap coating the bottom of his only bowl, Inuyasha set the adhesive aside and ventured out into the churning waters again to explain his plan to the merman in question and be sure that Deidara was prepared for what sounded like such a brutal transformation.

It seemed as if the ningyo had been waiting attentively yet anxiously for a verdict as he looked up with that same pleading expression to Inuyasha, wordlessly begging for some way to join him on land. Inuyasha gave the merman a halfhearted smile and stroked his fingers carefully through the course blonde tresses.

"Okay kid… so you were right… I found the spell, but it looks kind of, well… tricky." He paused to think carefully about the words he used before continuing. "The transformation looks like it would hurt, and if I'm not quick enough… you could suffocate… are you sure you want to go through with this? I mean are you willing to go through the pain and do you trust me to keep you alive?"

There was a long moment during which Deidara looked away without making a sound, his eyes seeming lost in an internal weighing of options. The ningyo wanted terribly to accompany Inuyasha wherever he went but the thought of going through a painful and potentially lethal process to do so was reasonably off-putting. He seemed to ponder both for what felt like ages before finally glancing up again at the hanyou and giving his land-dwelling companion a slight nod of agreement. Returning the gesture, Inuyasha continued to stroke his fingers through the merman's hair as he went on to explain.

"Okay, so to start the transformation, I'll have to take you out of the water and lay you on the beach, so you'll need to hold your breath as long as possible. I'll be as fast as I can but still the change takes time. The scroll said I have to dry your back and your fin and then stick a seal across your shoulders with tree sap. It also said that when the transformation is done you won't be able to breathe right away, so I'll be there to help you breathe…" He smiled as Deidara nodded in contemplative understanding. "Oh, and one other thing… it said to never let anything happen to the seal or you will change back, and that includes getting it wet."

With a low groaning noise, the merman bowed his golden head and churned the waters with his gills for a moment to be sure that his blood was well stocked with oxygen before he was removed from the bay completely. When he felt mostly assured, the ningyo blinked up at his half-demon companion and gave a slight nod to show that he was ready for the process to begin. Inuyasha heaved a heavy sigh and wrapped his firm arms around the koi-tail's broad shoulders, embracing him tightly and pressing their lips together in a chaste, loving gesture. As he did so, one of his hands slid lower on the merman's body until it briefly grasped at the rippling, muscular spine where the rear end of a human would have been. Still lower the hanyou's hand ventured until his arm cupped beneath the powerful tail and he pulled the entre creature out of the water in his powerful grasp.

Fighting against the tide and the clock, Inuyasha hauled the ningyo ashore and laid him belly-down on the sands beyond the licking reach of the waves. With an unused robe, the half demon made haste to wipe all the water away from Deidara's back, leaving the soft, tanned skin to feel sticky as it reacted to being exposed to air. The blonde tried not to wriggle, but sometimes instinct would force him to shift his drying tail in the sand suddenly. With a deft finger, Inuyasha made as much haste as possible to spread the sticky sap across the back of the sutra he had made and quickly pressed the seal into the ningyo's shoulders , sitting back and preparing to lurch into action once the transformation was finished.

The instant the seal touched his skin, it stuck and Deidara let out a deafening wail, his fingers digging into the sand and his eyes slamming shut as everywhere on is body muscles, bones and vital organs shifted. For a moment it was as if the flesh beneath skin and scale was alive with thousands of wriggling parasites, and the merman screamed in agony. The creature's tail was the first to retract, withering like a dying flower it curled inwards and shrunk, retreating within itself until the backbone retreated inward completely, leaving a slight dimple and the ningyo's exposed vent. At nearly the same time, from the place where the scales had once met with skin, a pair of lumps sprouted and grew outward, twisting as new flesh seemed to bubble up around them from out of nowhere. The spindly lumps gradually took shape as new legs, though the unfamiliar limbs lay useless, sprawled awkwardly in the sand as Deidara continued to writhe and shriek and suddenly jerked rolling onto his back in the process.

Within the merman's torso, an entirely different kind of pain was setting his every nerve aflame with agony as his internal organs were replaced, reshaped and even removed. The air-bladder that allowed all subaquatic creatures to regulate their depth easily collapsed in on itself and disappeared while his gills were spackled over with skin and swallowed up completely. Suddenly the horrible, terrifying screaming stopped altogether, leaving the sounds of frantic jerking and seizing in its wake as still the transmogrification marched on. From the system that had once brought oxygen into his blood from the water, a new pair of lungs sprouted, in his slightly caved-in chest while his digestive system shrunk to accommodate for new intestines. The heart shifted dramatically upwards and compacted, freezing for a moment before beginning again to pump blood through the frantically changing system. The three tracts that had once joined at the vent split off and the reproductive organs that had once been housed in Deidara's belly shifted downwards to hang in vulnerable sacks just below his growing intermittent organ. Thigh muscles grew thick and sinewy to clasp around the exposed anus with powerful gluteus muscles. The fangs in Deidara's mouth seemed to shrink back and his upper lip smoothed over while his tongue suddenly sprouted a thousand sensory buds. The strong membrane connecting the knuckles of each of his hands withdrew and the pointed claws that curved from his fingertips retreated into gnarled fingernails.

Gradually the shifting inside of the newly created human died away and he stared, still trembling in indescribable pain, up at Inuyasha as if begging for some kind of aid. The half demon hesitated, unsure of himself for a moment, but seeing the agonized desperation in the other man's lurid blue eyes, he _had_ to do something. Without thinking much, the hanyou crouched over the quaking man and took a deep breath, pressing their lips together, pinching Deidara's nose and blowing. The narrow chest visibly expanded as air rushed to fill the virgin lungs with their first breath. With the first push bringing Deidara to a point where his own muscles could take over, the untried diaphragm undulated violently as the ningyo twisted his head away and nearly choked on his own air. Rolling over onto his side and then to res on his elbows and hips, the blonde hunched his shoulders and hacked; the feeling of his chest being full of the usually toxic air causing an instinctual reaction to expel the gas from his body. After a great deal of coughing and wheezing, the muscle spasms subsided and clutching his head Deidara let out a low groan.

"Oh holy Susanoo-no-mikoto!" he swore in the name of the Shinto god of the sea. "My father… nothing ever so painful… god… like dying…"

"But see?" came the soft, reassuring crooning of Inuyasha's voice, causing the newly made man to lift his head and look up at the hanyou curiously. With a careful hand, the half demon smoothed his palm over the smooth skin where once dorsal spines had divide Deidara's back. "If it was like dying, then you have been reborn…"


	14. Lucky Chapter 13

Lucky Chapter 13 -

With the swimming in his head distorting his vision and the aching in his chest and all over his body, the blonde clutched his skull if only to keep from doubling over on the beach and retching. Every part of him was distorted in some way or another and there was air in places where there shouldn't be; everything about the new condition making him feel sick as he'd ever been. It was like the kind of land-sick distortion of the inner ear a fish will be afflicted with after being held steady on dry land for too long to such a point that the world simply spun around like a nightmarish whirlpool. For a moment, Deidara thought as if he would pass out on the beach and to stave off the feeling, buried his eyes in his hands and groaned as if to block out his churning vision and alleviate his symptoms. His companion was by his side in an instant with a supporting hand against the curve of his spine and a soft cloth draped over the writhing man's shoulders.

Gradually the shuddering and whimpering subsided until the only motion and sound from Deidara came from the heavy breaths that heaved from his chest as he acclimated himself to the new apparatus. When finally he had overcome the initial pain and strangeness, the new man found the strength in him to raise himself up on his forearms so that he was supported on his hips, his spine arched, much the way he would have perched on the sand had he still possessed a ningyo tail. Stretching his freshly shifted spine caused several of the vertebra to pop, making both men flinch and Inuyasha suddenly retract his hand, allowing the other to regain his bearings. Suddenly and with an exasperated sigh, the blonde rolled over onto his back, finding the altered position greatly more comfortable than his previous state, finally allowing his breathing to even out as the nausea subsided. With a bit of a relieved sigh, Inuyasha smiled down at the other man who in turn looked up and gave his companion a weak smile. Gently the hanyou brushed the damp and gritty golden hair from Deidara's brow, eventually moving his palm so that he brushed the sand from the young man's cheek with his thumb, caressing the smooth skin affectionately.

"So… do you feel better now kid? Is there anything I can get for you?" In a kind of half response, Deidara's lips twisted into an odd smile before his jowls parted into a wide yawn and his toes curled while his fingers dug into the fine sand of the beach. "Here kid, let me help you up… do you think you can stand? I mean I know you've never walked on legs before, but can I help you try?" Deidara's nose twitched and he gave a quick nod as he propped himself up on his elbows, combing his fingers through his hair before accepting the extended hand of the hanyou. With a grunt of effort, the blonde was eventually hauled onto wobbly new legs, balancing awkwardly on the outsides of his new soles as he stumbled and struggled to support himself. However as soon as the support of Inuyasha was taken from him, his fragile knees buckled and gave way, leaving the half breed to barely catch the other man before he fell. Eventually the hanyou settled with being used as a crutch as Deidara's legs found their steady ground and he walked the young creature back towards his tent.

With the little alcove of privacy and the newly formed man's palm in his own, a few flashes of vivid imagery darted through Inuyasha's brain, causing his mind to race and struggle to banish the thought before it began to show through. He wouldn't… he refused to… he could not be so animalistic… the transformation had been engaged for Deidara's benefit, so that Deidara could find comfort in being by his side and learn more about the surface world… Inuyasha would not be the kind of beast that would take advantage of the new body the instant it was formed. If the subject came to mating, _IF_, it would be on Deidara's terms; else the silver-haired man doubted he would be able to live with himself afterwards.

Taking a firm hold of the fragile man's elbow, Inuyasha carefully lowered his companion to sit in the sand just outside the canvas tent while he crawled inside alone to gather a few necessary things. When finally he emerged, he bore in his arms a bundle of brown fabric and a wad of scarlet fabric. The dun-colored garments were passed to Deidara in no particular order while Inuyasha again retreated into the safety of his tent to clothe himself without the curious eyes of the other on him. While the half demon was busy with his own robes, the blonde man eyed the clothing he had been presented with curiously, spreading a pair of pants in the air and staring at them as if trying to analyze their purpose. With a curious snort, Deidara put one arm experimentally through one of the legs of the fabric, but finding the feeling of being confined into the clothing unappealing, quickly abandoned the prospect, putting his lent clothes aside as if electing to remain in the nude. Apparently Inuyasha had been expecting him to be at least partially dressed by the time he emerged from the shade of his temporary home, but laying eyes on the other man still happily bare, he blushed and turned away.

"D-Deidara, put the clothes on please. That's what landfolk do, and w-we wouldn't want anyone knowing what you really are… so please?"

"I don't like them un," the blonde retorted back with a kind of look of determination that took his companion aback. "I never wore clothes in my life and I don't want to now, they feel weird and I don't like them un." With that the new man folded his arms and folded his legs Indian style as if he was taking a stand, though he could not truly stand.

"B-B… But… Kid…!" Inuyasha scrambled across the sand to snatch up the rejected clothing and holding the bundle up to Deidara yet again as if presenting him with the new garments a second time might alter his opinion. "You've got to remember how your body has changed, kid… You've got… your... um…" He fumbled with his words for a moment, not wanting to say the rationale behind his reasoning. "Kid you've got a dick now… and landfolk like to keep their… stuff private… it's a… a thing that humans do and stuff… you're only supposed to let your lover see that sort of stuff… so you have to keep it covered." Inuyasha's pointed ears folded back and he looked up at the skeptical merman over the hems of the offered pants, careful to avoid laying eye on the new and exposed genitals. With pursed lips, Deidara contemplated this, but receiving enough silent begging from the hanyou he finally gave in with a sigh.

"Fine un, but I don't even know where they're supposed to go, so you're gonna have to help me out, otherwise I'm not doing it un."

Inuyasha chewed his lower lip for a moment before finally giving in with a slight nod and again rising to his feet to help the other man up. With a little situating, Deidara was made to lean his weight against a nearby bowing mangrove while Inuyasha did his best to wrangle the shielding clothing up the other man's unsteady legs. All the while the half demon did his best to keep from staring at the smooth, slightly flushed round of his companion's rear, staving off the thought of giving the supple flesh a good swat. Still after a bit of wriggling and griping, Deidara's lower regions were fully covered by knee-length, loosely fitting dun trousers. Heaving a sigh of relief that the stubborn blonde's sex had been clothed, the half-demon's eyes fell to the seal that still adhered itself to the other man's shoulders. Twisting his lips with dissatisfaction, Inuyasha had to come to terms with the fact that it too would need to be covered, and considering Deidara's resistance to simple pants, he knew getting his friend to cover his back as well would be very difficult.

Instead of informing Deidara what he would be doing, the hanyou simply abandoned him leaning against the gnarled mangrove to fetch the cloak which matched the fabric of the trousers he had managed to force around the other man's hips. Giving a confused and startled squeak, Deidara looked over his shoulder to see where Inuyasha had disappeared to, but was all too late as he was assaulted with a leather string being done around his neck and a lightweight cloth being draped over his shoulders. Shocked and afraid, the young man immediately began to thrash until Inuyasha had to simply wrap his arms around the struggling blonde until all at once they pair toppled over onto the other side of the twisted tree, landing both with their faces first into the darker sand before tipping and falling in a heap. Deidara screeched and hollered, writhing in the tight grip of the stronger half demon, bucking his hips the way instinct told him to when he was swimming for his life. The two struggled and wrestled until Inuyasha finally found a strong hold on the other man with his legs wrapped around Deidara's and locked at the ankles while his arms held the other's arms at his sides. The hanyou pinned the twisting man's back to his chest and held him fast while tying the knot tight enough around the slender throat so that he was certain Deidara would not be able to remove the cloak. When finally the cord was fastened tightly around the howling man's neck, Inuyasha released him and gave him a gentle shove such that he rolled off of his captor to lay face down in the sand for a moment.

With a gasp and a snarl on his lips, Deidara looked up and glowered at the silver-haired man who was busy standing and brushing the sand off of his robes. Furiously the blonde shook his head and rolled over such that he could sit on his buttocks, spitting a gob of sand from his mouth like a disgusted cat.

"Sondes che feux! Balthaka na mesha kak ōtus uuridwo shun feux!" he barked irately, hurling a fistful of rather filthy-looking sand at Inuyasha and giving him a powerful scowl.

"Kid, speak Japanese… I don't know what you're saying when you yell at me like that…" Inuyasha flattened his ears back, not needing to know what the words meant to know that Deidara was boiling mad at him; it only took the look in the other man's livid blue eyes.

"I said, _'You fucking bastard, I told you that I didn't want to wear fucking clothes!'_ un." The blonde hissed, narrowing his eyes at the other man. "And you didn't have to maul me with it you stupid vent un."

Inuyasha heaved a sigh as if giving in and knelt next to the miffed merman who in turn scooted a few inches away from him in the sand and turned to look away to show he was still displeased with the hanyou. Careful to keep his movements slow and gentle, the elder man placed his hand softly on Deidara's kneecap and rubbed it tenderly with his thumb before inching closer to the irked man.

"Kid… I didn't mean to get rough with you… but you have to understand… I knew you wouldn't want to wear the cloak, but you have to in order to cover the seal up so people can't see. C'mon kid, I wasn't trying to be mean." With that, Inuyasha placed a soft, loving kiss on the other's tender neck, feeling it invoke a shiver as the skin immediately heated with embarrassment.

"Y-you oaf un… d-don't think that you can make me happy with you again with a f-few kisses un… If you do, then you're dumber than you look un." Inuyasha first appeared as if he had paid no attention, humming low in his throat and continuing to kiss the supple skin and fanning his hot breath into the crook of his companion's neck.

"Mmmm… Deidara…" he murmured softly into the heated flesh, "I don't just kiss you because I want you to forgive me, though that would be nice… I kiss you because I love to kiss you… kid, you're so beautiful… I'm so glad you want to come into town with me… There's no one else I'd rather go with…" It took a second for the words to sink into Inuyasha's own head and it was a little difficult to understand for a moment; was it true that even if he had Kagome as an option, he would still rather to have Deidara by his side? It had to be, for at that moment he felt as if there wasn't another soul he wanted to have at his hip and against his mouth; it was this man now that his heart desired in companionship and in love.

Love.

The day dwindled on rather slowly as Inuyasha packed up the campsite onto his shoulders, and after a half hour or so of supporting Deidara by his side and trekking through the matted forest, he also fronted the weight of the transformed man on his back, his untrained legs having given up entirely. Like a contented child, the blonde man clung to his companion's shoulders, marveling in the wonder of the people, architecture and culture of the landfolk. Everything was so strange and hot. There were fires blazing in nearly every store weather for forging iron or baking foods and as the sun began to set, lanterns were lit all along the main road to hang from every awning. Deidara marveled at the glowing orbs, likening them to the beautiful bulbs of angler fish without the bad temper and terrible rows of teeth. However, with the evening came a chill in the air rolling in from the north east and heavy clouds began to shroud the stars just as the glittering specks had begun to pick their ways across the painted skies. Smelling the chill and the eminent rain, Inuyasha made the command decision that it was time to find shelter and settle in for the night and fortunately, he knew just the place.

It was a small cottage, only one room for there were no dividing walls between the sections that did exist. Though the hanyou would never admit to Deidara the original purpose of the home, it had once been the place where he had intended to share his life with Kagome before she had expressed her desire to return to her own time. Of course the departure was not bitter, but the memory of the future that could never be still stung like a pin in the sole of Inuyasha's foot. Still he kept his upper lip firm as he hauled the sagging man through the shoji. The house itself was rather dusty with the faintest air of mildew creeping up from an untended leak in the wall. There was a bed, a simple mattress lain on the floor, which had been made and never touched, the place having been abandoned before ever coming into use; after all it was supposed to have been a surprise for Kagome. There was an iron potbelly stove in the far corner, though all of the cookware had been pilfered from the abandoned home by looters, not that it irked Inuyasha terribly. There hadn't been much to steal anyway, and their scents were long gone.

With an exaggerated sigh of relief, the hanyou carefully lowered Deidara until he plopped onto the untouched bedding which molded slightly to the man's weight. The blonde man looked as if he was about to ask a question, but all too soon, he turned around and Inuyasha was on the other side of the house, letting his newly got rations and camping equipment slide to the floor in the corner and shutting the front shoji and turning it's wooden latch. The silver-haired man hadn't had his back turned for more than a moment, however and as he looked back to his companion who he'd deposited in good faith, the blonde had already removed his pants and was struggling vainly with the cord that held the cloak around his neck. With an exhausted sounding grunt, Inuyasha crouched before the other and caught his claws in the tight knot, picking at it until the leather went slack in his fingers and the cloth slipped off of Deidara's shoulders. Giving his a grateful smile, the younger blinked up at the half demon and nodded quickly, perhaps having grown so accustomed to silent communication in the air that it slipped his mind that he could speak. At the same time, however, Inuyasha had become very good at reading the ningyo's silent expressions and took the suggestion well and turned his back to the blonde yet again, this time only to let his own clothing fall away from his body.

As he rotated back to see his companion, he had been expecting Deidara to be where he had been, sitting quietly on the edge of the bed, maybe even with his eyes shining in that way that simply begged Inuyasha to kiss him. Alas the silver-haired man would have no such luck as the other man was lying on his stomach on the side of the bed nearest to the wall, his head resting comfortably on his folded arms. Inuyasha had to smirk at the way the silly kid lay on top of the sheets rather than between them, but still he found the ningyo's naiveté rather cute in most cases. Inuyasha climbed in next to the blonde, pulling the covers from beneath the confused man only to drape them over Deidara's body so that beneath the blanket, he could shimmy himself closer to other body. This time the younger did not protest to being covered up, instead letting out a contented noise before closing his eyes and allowing himself to be pulled into Inuyasha's embrace. It felt nice, to be sleeping so close to Inuyasha finally; it had been something he had been wishing for, but the one thing of greatest impossibility seeing as sleeping together would have caused one or the other to suffocate. Curling his arms to his chest, Deidara sighed as the half-demon's strong arms wrapped around his shoulders and held him loosely but near to his warm body. It was calming, relaxing and sweet, and the pair easily drifted off to sleep curled against one another.


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14 -

The grey morning rays of the new day stirred the eyes of a semi-conscious hanyou, not setting a good mood for the day. Inuyasha grumbled against the light, but it was ignored when he was unable to move his arm. Looking down to it, it at first alarmed him that an occupant was holding his limb hostage, but the events of the day prior sweetly played back through his mind, forcing him to smile.

"So it wasn't a dream," Inuyasha croon as the intoxicating scent of musk and salt wafted from his companion, still blissfully sleeping beside him. Without too much movement, he adjusted his body to lie comfortably so that he could better watch the ningyo slumber. The mutt could have stayed like that for ages, had a certain growl from his abs arouse his attention. "Oh right, breakfast. Better have food for you when you do wake up, huh?" Taking carful actions to not stir his company, Inuyasha released his arm and replaced a pillow swiftly to fill the space. Deidara murmured a soft purr, but in all accepted the substitute and remained asleep. Relieved, the hanyou thoughtfully placed a kiss on the other's temple and hurried off in search of sustenance.

Rain pattered softly against the wooden roof and water trickled haplessly through a little crack in the corner and dribbled all the way to the floor, giving the morning a soft humming as the silver-haired man set to work. The gentle sizzling of fresh meats crackling as Inuyasha did his best to cook without a pan gently drew the slumbering man towards consciousness. He squeaked quietly in his sleep and shifted, burying his nose deeper into the pillow that had replaced his companion. The half demon looked up at the muffled sound, careful not to let his makeshift kabobs slip into the potbelly stove as he roasted a healthy meal. He smiled slightly as Deidara nuzzled his substitute again and took in a deep breath of the hanyou's lingering scent before his eyes suddenly flew open. It wasn't the gradual waking process he had been expecting, but this way he could at least greet the awakened man with breakfast.

Inuyasha gave the other man a warm smile and was about to welcome him back to the land of the living when he noticed something seriously wrong with the expression on the blonde's face. Before he could ask what was bothering him, the blonde sat bolt upright in bed, his pupil's dilating and his nostrils flaring as he stared directly eastward towards the only door in the house. He looked for a moment like a terrified deer which has been startled into locking up before all of a sudden he lurched forward, flying out from under the sheets and bounding towards the front shoji like a deranged lunatic. His fingers clawed at the little grove that served as a handle, not realizing that the door was locked before he began shaking the thing that impeded his path to the outside world. His silence was serious as he shook the shoji, but his sudden fear was palpable.

Inuyasha immediately abandoned his cooking to investigate, bringing his hands to Deidara's shoulders.

"What's wrong? What are you freaking out about?"

Continuing to rattle the shoji to its frame, the blonde almost didn't notice the other man until his shoulders were squeezed, and even then he wouldn't turn around. He still shook the door as if trying to tear it down and forge a path of escape.

"Can't! I have to get back! I have to get back _now_ un! It's starting without me!" He gasped and gave the door a good head-butt in a last ditch effort to break free, but when the action made his feet nearly give out beneath him, Inuyasha had to remove him from the front door for his own safety.

"You can't go out there in the rain, you'll change back and die! What could be so important that you'd-"

The hanyou's protests were cut short by a shrill cry from the ningyo, taking him a bit aback as it put him at a loss for what to do. Again Deidara's legs gave out and the half demon had to help him back to the bed before he took a spill onto the wooden floor and hurt himself.

Struggling to restrain his guest from running to his death, the hanyou held firm as Deidara squirmed in his hands.

"What the hell it the matter? What's starting? Hey- look at me!" he quickly griped the blonde's chin between his fingers and forced their eyes to meet, terrified by the wild fear he saw. "What's wrong… Talk to me, please!"

"The, AH!" Deidara gasped and wriggled in the other man's grasp, yanking his chin away if only to break away eye contact. "It's in season un! I can smell her! I can smell her roe! I need to get back before someone else gets there first un! Mikoto! I can't be late! Not again un!" Again he shook in Inuyasha's arms and cried again as if in sharp pain.

A qualm in his chest told him to release the poor creature, but Inuyasha refused and held on, knowing that to let go would spell certain death.

"You need to calm down, kid, or you'll hurt yourself. Come on, Deidara… shhh." The hanyou did his best to sooth the man, the ningyo whimpering as his crown was stroked tenderly. "Now what's going on, Deidara? Calm down."

The ningyo gradually seemed to catch his breath and calm his struggling, but still his eyes were wide and dilated and his nose flared, making him appear almost to be under the influence of some drug. When finally he'd regained enough composure to speak in complete sentences, Deidara looked up at his captor with his wild blue eyes.

"Can't you smell it too, Inuyasha un? Smell the air, smell the hormones, mikoto can't you smell it un?" Inuyasha looked puzzled for a moment, but obeyed, lifting his nose into the air and drinking in a deep breath.

"All I smell is fish… yeah we're in land, but you can always smell fish when the air comes from the east."

"No, no!" Deidara protested and again began to wriggle in the half demon's hands. "It's the smell of _hormones_ un! Female _hormones_! I can smell the must in the air un!" He tossed his head from one side to the other and moaned loudly as if simply being restrained was agony. "Once every hundred years the females bear a single egg each and I have to get back before someone else can fertilize it un!" He paused and turned away again, his eyes screwing shut as he quivered in Inuyasha's grasp. "Is… uh… why is it so warm in here un? Why does it hurt so much?"

"So wait, you're like… in heat? You've gotta- oh shit." Inuyasha temporarily lost his hold, the merman slipping quickly from his reach. Before Deidara could make another attempt at breaking the door, Inuyasha was on him again, this time crashing roughly on the floor. Careful as could be, he again restrained the panicking man, much to his displeasure, and tried to calm him.

"Wait, we're too far out- you'll never make it! You got to relax or I might hurt you. It's too far, kid, now stop- stop it! Just relax… I got you."

Deidara winced and scrabbled with his hands at the floor as if in doing so he would be able to scramble away from the other man and make his escape. Like a wild animal the blonde thrashed, protesting and howling about how he _needed_ to return to the ocean as if it was some race for his life.

"No! I can't stay un! If I don't get back it will be too late and Pein-sama will have taken the brood already un! I can't! It's hurting me to not be there un! Mikoto it hurts so much un!" His fingertips rubbing raw against the grain of the wooden floors, Deidara jerked and yelped but to no avail as Inuyasha would not relinquish his grasp on the borderline suicidal, desperate man. All at once the blonde in his arms went limp as if for a moment he had passed out face down on the floor, the only hint to his consciousness being a low, embarrassed sounding whine. There was a long pause filled only with the sounds of Deidara catching his breath before again he spoke.

"It's… it's beginning un…" It was at that very instant that a new, strange and very pungent scent assaulted Inuyasha's nose.

It was defiantly the scent of the ningyo, but it was powerful, concentrated and overpowering. Inuyasha's nostrils drowned in the smell, rattling his primal senses and shocking the hanyou. Without fully realizing it, his basic instincts took over and he gripped the man tightly, forcing him to remain still as his nose sought out the source. All over the young body Inuyasha sniffed, the tantalizing scent growing ever stronger as he reached lower on the body, until he found his target and hovered over it in awe. The unknown regions of Deidara's manhood. With another whiff he confirmed that a powerful concoction of hormones and pheromones was radiating from his loins, something Inuyasha simply could not ignore.

"Dei… Deidara, I…" the hanyou struggled for breath, each time taking in more of that intense aroma. "W-what's happening, kid…?"

Still the ningyo shuddered and whined as if he did not at all wish to be speaking of his current condition, but rather mending it. It was then that Inuyasha noticed the heat radiating from the other man's body; like a fever gone awry it spread like wildfire until the normally cool flesh was warm and flushed. Deidara wriggled and groaned, but finally gave in, waiting for the pulsing pain in his lower abdomen to subside for a moment before he could reply.

"It's the season un… when all male ningyo produce milt to fertilize their future heir… but… it wasn't like this last time un… it… this hurts so much un… like something's squeezing me down there un… I… I want to go back un!"

"You _can't_ go back! It's raining and the ink will run…" the half-breed trailed off, another wave of pheromones wafted to his nose, making him stumble in thought. "Maybe you can fix it here… or we could, I mean…"

There wasn't any kind of hint as to an answer to the implied suggestion, however meek and uncertain, in Deidara's eyes as he tentatively rolled over onto his back and stared at the hanyou with a look of utter bewilderment. His pupils seemed to quiver for a moment as he studied Inuyasha's face, searching for an answer. When the half demon grimaced and turned away with a flushed face, panic rose in the ningyo's throat, unable to understand what his partner had meant by _'fix it here'_ or why suddenly he seemed so repulsed.

"What do you mean un? I… Inuyasha, what's wrong with me un? Why does my body feel so tight and hot like this? Are you going to cure me un?"

"Well, I mean… this body is built like mine… like a humans, and when we want to… mate- we um… do things. Stuff that will make you feel… better. A lot better." The proud mutt couldn't openly unveil his intention, humiliated over how turned on he had become over the simple scent of the man's arousal and the way his body was warming in his arms. He hated that he couldn't control his own want, but if this condition was actually hurting Deidara… then it was possibly obligatory to indulge in his desires.

However, as Inuyasha was leaning in to do something of which he was unsure, to kiss the ningyo or nuzzle his neck, suddenly the blonde lurched backwards in his arms, loosening the half demon's grip but this time not bolting. There was a look of shock and fear in his lucid cerulean eyes, and the hanyou could hear the other man's heart pounding in his chest like a wild animal beating against its cage. There was a slight way that Deidara trembled that was due to his sudden wave of hormones and reproductive drive, but also due to his fright and adrenaline, the mixture of chemicals pulling him in numerous directions. Still, he raised up a knee as if in preparation to push off the floor again and make his escape.

"Ah… why… what's mating got to do with it un?"

Now this was a puzzle. Inuyasha at first couldn't figure out how to explain something so basic to what looked to the world as a full-grown man. How could he not have ever felt this way? Had he no desire, not passion… no lust? But there it was. He hadn't. This 'fertilizing' thing had nothing to do about emotions… it was animalistic. Something Inuyasha knew all too well.

"Well that way I see it… this thing for you, when you were a fish it wasn't painful. But you're… a mammal now, and mammals… mate. We don't lay eggs and 'milt'… we m-mate." He slowly drew a wandering lock of hair over the ear of the ningyo, trying to explain something so simple, yet too complicated to imagine. "Like… we pair together and… get together to make kids. There's only two. So… maybe we could try… the mammal way and fix… this," he muttered, motioning to Deidara's burning crotch.

"Y-you mean the way sharks…? But… ah… y-you're not a female un… how would… nnnnn." He stopped there, quite off put by the thought as once he'd witnessed a pair of male rays tear each other to shreds in a battle to each court the opposite. He gulped and shivered, not sure whether to enjoy the idea or be afraid. The mating of the sharks and sea mammals was nothing like that of the ningyo. In the culture of the merfolk, there was reproduction and there was courtship; reproduction being the season of egg fertilization, driven by furious instinct, and courtship being the pleasurable connection with a chosen partner. The ningyo were rather sensitive on their soft undersides and when a desire was reciprocal the pair would each rub their vulnerable bellies together to create a shared pleasure. However, there was nothing in the mind of the young blonde to connect the pleasure of the courtship ritual of his people to the mating between two creatures or their sexual reproduction.

Deidara averted his eyes and whined, doing a poor job of suppressing the sounds of discomfort. His lower region felt still more and more tight and hot and wet; the milt his instinct drove the unfamiliar body to produce leaking from the pained intermittent organ like a broken faucet.

"M-mating is… is fine and all un… but don't you think that there might be a better time un? I… I don't see how it would help un… I…" he looked up at the other man with glassy eyes, pleading for some relief from his insufferable ache, "I don't understand un… how it would help…"

"When people mate, then uh… 'release' and the heat and pain goes away. All that stuff happens when you want to mate, and after you're done, it goes away. I mean, afterwards I usually get tired, but I feel a hell of a lot better. That's all I can think of, kid… I don't know what else to do. You can't leave in this storm… you'll die."

The confusion in Deidara's eyes seemed to diminish, and for a moment, it appeared as if he was going to respond, but instead interrupted himself with an anguished cry as he leaned forward and clutched himself low on his twisted gut. His face contorted and his back bowed forward until his forehead pressed against Inuyasha's left shoulder. Again the hanyou's sensitive olfactory was bombarded with the powerful scent of Deidara's uncontrollable trickle of milt, which seemed to have picked up in flow. His eyes finally cracked open and the blonde whined in embarrassment as he observed that unknown flap of tender, vulnerable flesh suddenly full of life and vigor, stiff as a bone and dripping with lightly colored reproductive fluids. The milt tricked down his heated skin and pooled on the floor below, shaming Deidara all the further, not in that it was out of his control (such things always were in the ningyo species) but more that on land it was messy and left a powerful scent.

"Hnnnn, Inuyasha…" he finally groaned, turning away from the sight of his own organ out of humiliation, "whatever you can do to make it go away … do it un…"

Without a second thought, Inuyasha dove into the sea of golden hair and nuzzled the moist neck of his soon-be-lover. A soft whimper erupted from the merman's throat, frightened and unsure of his reaction. But with the loving nibbles supplied to his neck, he was partially distracted from the throbbing he so desperately wished to rid of. His tanned skin was littered with perspiration, only driving the hanyou's sensed wilder. With his eyes closed in passionate concentration, Inuyasha snaked his hands to the trembling legs of his guest, tenderly exploring for his hard cock. As his fingers brushed against the swelled head, the mutt jumped at the yelp from Deidara, pausing in his actions to assess the damage.

"You alright! I didn't hurt you, right?"

Falling back suddenly, the ningyo screwed his eyes shut and let out a low whimper, his back arching up off of the floor as finally the source of all his anguish was touched. What he hadn't expected was for the sensation to burst and spread like wildfire, a burning feeling that tingled and crackled in his veins. Being far too young to have found a partner among his own pod, Deidara was unaccustomed to the feeling of pleasure aside from his own cautious experimentations, but it seemed he would always become too afraid and abandon any attempt at progressing further. The sparks of pleasure that were set off in his heated flesh at the slightest touch of the hanyou's rough palm was like that same, strange feeling, that it scared him, but at the same time, the action gave him relief from the agony twisting in his gut. The shock of bliss for a moment completely drowned out the discomfort and tightness in his loins, causing Deidara to lean his head back and sigh in a quavering voice.

"N… no you didn't… hurt… it… felt nice un…" he gasped finally as his breathing resumed and regulated though he hadn't noticed it had stopped in the first place.

Inuyasha beamed unapologetically, the goal of pleasuring this creature of his dreams being reached. He slowly returned his fingers to grasp the slick shaft, again waiting until the moans of Deidara subsided momentarily. With his 'milt' flowing graciously over his entire length, Inuyasha took advantage of it and coated the rest of the burning cock in the sticky mess. Careful not to overload the poor human virgin, he stroked repeatedly, whispering loving encouragements between kisses into the ningyo's neck flesh.

Gradually as the other man's palm passed more and more over his aching organ, the pleasure surmounted, until it hovered constantly at a point where it overshadowed the pain of the persistent leaking of his erection. Unsure how to react to the new feeling that sent shivers through his every nerve and took his vision from focus, Deidara at first tried desperately to swallow his cries and groans of surprise and bliss. His hips wriggled and jerked away from time to time, as if his body was overloading and demanding for the sensation to be dialed down, but a yelp of pleasure always followed immediately afterward. The ningyo's spine arched and his throat rumbled with a low moan he'd been unable to impede, his hands balling into fists and his breaths running uneven and ragged as the good feelings overpowered the bad, making his current status bearable.

With a steady rhythm set, the half-breed sought out to further arouse the other, in turn turning Inuyasha on more until they were both ready for… whatever would come next. In that moment, the hanyou had no idea how far he would take this, knowing in his state Deidara would do anything to rid of his pain, and in truth the half demon didn't know what he wanted. For now, if he could get the blonde off at least once, then maybe with a clear head they could discuss possible furthering this little adventure.

The free hand of the silver-hair wandered over the scorched flesh for Deidara's chest, finding another erogenous spot to tease and please. The pert nub under Inuyasha's fingertip was warm and responded well to his rubbing, a sweeter, more vulnerable squeal breaking free of the lips of his partner.

As again the fire of pleasure burned through his body from the newly touched nipple, the blonde gasped and nearly fainted as the feeling lurched through his system. He couldn't stop himself from arching and crying out, writhing under the erotic treatment, nearly drowning in the bliss that washed over him like a powerful swell. He whimpered, gasped, moaned and saw nothing but white, hot pleasure swirling in his unfocused vision as all at once he could feel a change in his lower organ where first Inuyasha had begun his touching. There was a burst of heat and suddenly he felt the clenched flesh slacken slightly. As the hanyou had been tending to his leaking erection, it had suddenly leapt in his grasp and issued forth with a wave of milt, drooping slightly in his hand, but not ceasing its relentless dribbling.

Smiling contently, Inuyasha kissed the quivering lips of Deidara, until he viewed a still restless look of ache on his face.

"Don't you feel better?"

"Just a l-little un," the blonde shook, "but my milt isn't stopping. Is this right un?"

"No, you should have stopped… maybe if we try something else…" Daring his will power, he abandoned the side of the man's neck and kissed his way down the racing chest until he hovered over shaky hips. He gently bit the protruding bone of Deidara's hip until he retrieved his hand, still dripping with fresh milt. He sniffed at it once, falling in love with the masculine scent of hormones, and gave his finger a tentative lick.

The young ningyo laid back, quivering in anticipation of the hand returning to his painfully tight groin, reviving the bliss and easing his discomfort again, but when there was such a long pause, he glanced up to see what Inuyasha was doing. Deidara suddenly whimpered, his brow furrowing to see that the hanyou was crouched just above his groin but lost in his own world. With his eyes closed so as to narrow his range of senses, the half demon sighed happily as he licked the white fluids from his fingers; their scent and salty taste was something completely strange and alluring. Blissfully, Inuyasha scoured his fingers for every last trace of the blonde man's essence, flooding his palate with the taste of his heated condition and his enticing cocktail of natural pheromones. Again, observing the action, Deidara became very confused, having never encountered any creature or even being able to comprehend one that would consume the vital, reproductive milt. The entire action was odd and stirred him deep in the pit of his gullet in some way which the ningyo could not describe.

"Inuyasha … why do you eat it un? Milt is for… for spawn… it's not like a mother's lactate un…"

"No, but… I can't, I can't help it. It smells like you, and…" Inuyasha smiled sheepishly for his words, but knew at this time honesty would be his best tool. "I just wanted to know h-how you taste. Plus, I think if I try this next thing, it'll make you stop." Receiving nothing but a curious mew, he smiled and finished his plan, bringing his face to the hard, moist organ and placing it inside his jaws, greedily licking along the sides and tip.

"Herk…" came an immediately stifled gasp from Deidara as he covered his mouth as soon as he felt the heat of Inuyasha's maw. He tried to protest, only for the sound to be cut short by a throaty moan as the pleasure leapt into his throat and caught up with him. Jumping palpably in Inuyasha's mouth, it almost felt as if the leaking organ's flow of precious seed increased, as if human instinct recognized the purpose of a hot, wet cavern. His brow furrowing, Deidara squealed as he felt the hanyou slurp at his member in a vain attempt to drink in his milt as it flowed, though still the white slick made its way past his lips and dribbled down his chin. The blonde wriggled and his spine arched, his fingernails digging into the grain of the floor below as he fought for some kind of proper reaction. On one hand, the feeling – gods the feeling – it was on a completely different level of bliss than the simple motion of Inuyasha's hand, and yet the action in and of itself was too strange and different, like some bizarre fetish, and it made Deidara's rear rise up again.

"I-Inuyasha un! D… Don't eat it! Why are you… my… Aaaahnnnn!"

Trying furiously to keep up with the flow of seed being pumped into his mouth, the hanyou simply lapped at the hot shaft, ever minding his teeth less they break the fragile skin and injure the already suffering creature. Out of the corner of his eye, Inuyasha could see the combined pleasure and torture in Deidara's face, and in an attempt to give him some sort of reissuance or comfort, he snatched one of the merman's strained hands and placed it on the top of his head, letting his fingers grip into silver strands.

With his hips rocking forward just ever slightly, the ningyo arched his back until it trembled, losing all comprehension in his words and causing his voice to take on an entirely new dialect of gasps, pants, squeals and moans. The digits laced in Inuyasha's light tresses balled into a fist and gave the scalp a firm tug as the young blonde tossed his head from side to side as if to show how unbearable the horrible level of pleasure was. His breaths came in shallow and his whole body twitched as Inuyasha's hot saliva and his own reproductive juices flowed down his scalding skin and made every inch of flesh below slick and saturated with the moist concoction. As the hanyou's mouth worked even harder to further his delight, though the feeling of crackling ecstasy increased, so too did the tightness that threatened to squeeze his guts until they broke.

Inuyasha worked diligently to break his lover form his primal bond, but looking up he found that his efforts weren't great enough to again release the hormonal ningyo. Having knowledge from exploring his own body, the mutt knew of one last trick he could pull, a bit to tip the scale and let Deidara cum again and hopefully rid him of his discomfort. The space between the blonde's balls and anus, as tender patch of nerves, were his last hope as he reached a hand covertly in and gently prodded the spot with a soft massage, awakening a whole new batch of pleasures onto the tormented merman.

The prostate; a little bundle of membranes and muscles that produces an additional alkaline secretion in semen; a cluster of highly sensitive nerves which respond pleasurably to physical stimuli; a gland present only in the bodies of mammals, not fish. It was something Deidara couldn't understand and it threw his mind spinning into a fog of confusion and utter ecstasy the instant that little organ was pressed against. It was as if the flint deep within had been struck, sending sparks and fire throughout his body, radiating from that one little point. It was an indescribable feeling, to have bliss coursing through his veins from a little node which before had not existed within his body. It was as if all at once Deidara turned into gelatin, falling totally limp, his breath being snatched from his own lungs and his gaze transfixing on the churning stars that blotched his vision. He felt as if the sensation had suddenly overthrown his body and he was a captive to the pleasure, serving it, wishing it would never vanish, and the only way to be certain it would stay was to let his voice loose.

"Oh Gods! My Susanoo-no-mikoto!" He cried, his back arching as he tossed his blonde mop of hair from side to side in ecstasy. "OOOoooooh! Inuyasha un! What was… OOooooh! NGAaaaah!"

With a hand subconsciously ripping into his skull, the hanyou continued to remove all of the gushing milt being flooded into his mouth, one arm cradling the small of Deidara's back and the other retaining a loving massage with his thumb on the perineum. With the flow of milt, Inuyasha could feel certain waves, showing the man's orgasm was riding through and possibly coming to an end.

It seemed miraculous that along with the desperate sounds of Deidara's voice, the steady leaking of semen finally ground to a halt. The younger man's member went slack and drooped and there was some level of internal collapse as the ningyo shuddered, finally finding comfort in the relief of the terrible pressure in his groin. He lay sprawled and utterly exhausted, having reached his orgasm for the first time in his life, and then reached it again; in almost 250 years he had never reached that stage, and now all of a sudden, twice in a matter of minutes. He was left weak, quivering and his chest heaving for breath, the rest of him as powerless as a newborn.

The feeling of release had a lovely sort of euphoric afterglow that made Deidara want to bask in it for a few more minutes before caving in to the prospect of sleep. However, just as the thought of rest tantalized his tired mind, the ningyo let out a shrill groan of frustration as again the tightness began to throb back into his loins. There was a level of pitiful ness to the sound in his voice and the look in his eyes as he glanced with a look of desperation up to Inuyasha who also seemed baffled that after such a release the other man was returning to hardness yet again. As it had before, the organ grew back to life and the flow of milt restarted, pulling more sounds of discomfort, fatigue and confusion from the blonde.

Feeling defeated, a sad Inuyasha deserted the troublesome member and returned to the distraught Deidara, sighing sympathetically. He didn't' know what else to do, so the hanyou gently took the ningyo's chin and locked with his lips, letting their tongues meet temporarily if nothing else, to distract his mind. But unknown by the miserable blonde, he wasn't the only one with primal urges driving his loins insane. From all of the excitement and intimate interaction, Inuyasha too had grown painfully hard, but with his lover in agony he had put his troubles aside. But with a twinge of ache from his own cock, the mutt formulated a new plan and began to find the words to deliver to the flustered man.

"I'm sorry kid; I thought that would do it… But there's one more thing I can think of. It's a lot more than what I just did, but if it'll get you off, it's worth a try right?"

As if there wasn't anything more to say by it, Deidara looked up at the other man with eyes that silently begged for any solution; anything that would allow him to escape the miserable cycle; anything to sate his hurting lower regions. No pleas needed to escape the quivering lips as he looked up piteously at Inuyasha, the hanyou could read his agony and his desperation like a book. The ningyo would do anything to rid himself of the horrible, foreign feeling.

Smiling reassuringly, Inuyasha held out a hand, the blonde curiously taking it, and with a swift reach, the hanyou scooped up Deidara, carrying him to their bed hastily. The aching male could only whimper wantonly as he curled into his half-breed. As he lay the lean frame of his lover out, he reevaluated the plan. In order for this to work properly, he'd have to take extra time with preparation, inevitably delaying the merman's release.

"Alright, now we can't just start this next thing… if we go too fast, it will only hurt you more, so let me… get you ready. Trust me, ok?

The blonde only gave a rushed nod, willing to undergo anything to end the horrible state he was in. Satisfied, Inuyasha took Deidara's knees and spread them apart, again exposing the weeping, throbbing cock to be vulnerable. Ignoring it, he continued his task and inserted his pointer and middle finger into his mouth, coating them generously with his own saliva.

"Inuyasha un…." The ningyo nearly whimpered as he looked up at the way the hanyou salivated onto his own fingers yet again. "What are you… eating it again un?" Wincing for what felt like the millionth time, Deidara looked puzzled up at the other man, eager yet confused. The blonde wished he would be given some explanation to the new mammalian actions aside from 'I'll do this and it will make you feel good,' not that the feeling of Inuyasha's touch was something he much minded.

Taking his fingers out and placing his other hand inside Deidara's thigh, Inuyasha's face was crossed with sympathy and guilt.

"I'll make this quick. Trust me, kid, it'll get better." Before Deidara could muster another question, he felt a sharp pressure on his lower body that even rivaled his stark erection. A tight hole beneath his rock hard organ began to ache, another new addition to his anatomy that now terrified him. He could feel something forcing its way past the ring of muscle keeping the hole closed, and Deidara couldn't fight his urge to cry against it. It was forcing its way inside him.

Hating how slow and tedious the process was, the half-breed continued to push his pointer inside, stretching the anus ring in order to widen his entrance.

He could feel the young merman below him quiver and wriggle, rustling the sheets beneath him as he fought to keep from yelping. Deidara finally couldn't help it any longer and let out a shrill sound of discomfort, throwing his head to the side such that he wouldn't have to see the way his body was being penetrated. It was demeaning and uncomfortable and strange, the blonde man shuddered and struggled with the sensation, praying for it to get better, but unable to keep from protesting verbally.

"N-no! Ah…. Inuyasha un! What… what is… are… what have you done to my body un! Ngya! Y-you've made me into a hermaphrodite un!"

"No no, calm down," Inuyasha placed a hand firmly against Deidara's cheek, stilling his other hand. Rubbing the sweaty jaw line, he swallowed a growing lump and cocked his head slightly. "Just relax. All mammals have… this- males and females. It's where… uh, well we get rid of… waste, so you're ok, just calm down. Remember how good it felt a minute ago? Well if you let me stretch you out a little, I can make it feel better than that-"

Gradually the jumbled ningyo mind made some series of connections, but he was too anxious for the pleasure to return to continue his questioning. If this point was where waste was expelled, then it was a vent, but it was muscular and tight, felt by the resistance and the stretching when Inuyasha inserted his digit. Well, the vent was where the gonads were located as well, and the orifice through which fish with intermittent organs fertilized the roe of their mates, so perhaps it was simply how mammals did things. He swallowed hard and nodded, forcing himself to relax and hoping that the pleasure would return soon such that the throbbing pain and embarrassing oozing of milt could be again ignored.

After a shaky nod signaled him to continue, the plans moved onward. The finger resumed its probing, slipping in and out past a clenched band until Inuyasha managed to reach his knuckle. Even with Deidara squirming around him, the hanyou was relieved that he could get the whole finger in with room to spare, proving that his anatomy could handle his shaft and that he could reach the man's prostate without splitting him in two. Informing him first, the mutt slipped in another finger beside the first, gently scissoring the ring while still prodding.

With the fingers moving rhythmically within his anus, Deidara couldn't help but grimace and squirm from time to time, but mostly forced himself to remain calm and still lest the whole process take even more time to conclude in relief. His breathing came in heavy and uneven as he tried to steady himself and keep from lurching away from the invasive feeling. If only he could muscle his way past this and stomach the intrusion long enough for the discomfort to shift into bliss, he would be able to find his comfort and be rid of the horrible, twisting ache.

The muscles slowly stopped fighting against his finger, so Inuyasha decided that it was time to go to the next step, the deed that would truly bring them together. As his moist digits were squeezed out, he carefully thought over one last time what he was doing.

Here was a man. A man he loved. A man in pain that could be healed by making love to him… what was there to think about? But that nagging feeling still remained. There was no turning back after this, the last barrier between them that could never be rebuilt. The hanyou knew he was ready… but was Deidara? Inuyasha figured he was in too much misery to care, but if this somehow cured his ailment… would he come to regret it?

"Kid… so you're ready for the next part. I'm going to… Dei, I'm going to-" he bit his lip, not knowing how to word what he was going to do. "I'm… I'm going to be inside you. We're going to… mate, now. I think it will help, but… do you want to?"

The young ningyo rolled his head to the side and let out a long, low whine simply thinking about the word 'mate.' Still the concept did not fall perfectly into his mind, but as bashful as Inuyasha was about explaining the mechanics of it, it would appear as if he might never get a definite answer. He could only spend a brief, gasping moment to think the proposition over, but still he was unsure whether to accept and become connected with the hanyou, or decline and remain in misery.

"What… what will happen if you do… mate me un?" He was afraid to enter into a contract with Inuyasha without knowing the consequences or future repercussions.

Relaxing himself, the hanyou settled himself on his knees between Deidara's legs, placing each hand on an inner thigh, a calming gesture to the man.

"Ok, I'll try to explain. I'll… be inside you." Showing him, the mutt touched his own erection. "It'll be r-rubbing in and out, and it will feel like when I touched you before. Hopefully you'll have that feeling again, and you'll let go and stop… dripping. Then after that… I don't know. For now, I want you to feel better, and then… we can figure it all out."

Deidara's eyes swam with a mixture of nervousness and anxiousness, but with his lip between his teeth, he gradually gave in and nodded slowly. He didn't want to have to say it aloud, finding the reason why the other man had been so embarrassed and reluctant to explain the workings of the connection between mammals. Instead he let out a quiet whimper and forced his tight, aching body to relax, groaning as doing so only caused the dull pain in his groin to surmount.

Suppressing his eagerness less he ruin their moment and harm the other man, the silver-hair set to work that last step in their intimate dance. Grabbing his throbbing cock, he guided it to the puckered hole and pressed his head against it. Instantly Deidara's body became rigid, but Inuyasha was quick to sooth and reassure him. Stroking the clammy thigh of his partner, he waited until the muscles calmed and he was ready. Pushing himself onto his knees, a prompt thrust, and he was in.

The mixture of Inuyasha's saliva and the ningyo's milt that had been flowing down from Deidara's agonizingly hard erection slicked every inch of him below and with hot, wet oils, primed the virgin's rectum. The shaft of his mate sinking past the younger man's muscled vent caused his breaths to freeze in his chest as he struggled vainly to keep still. With the quick jerk from Inuyasha's hips, the hanyou's penis pushed his rectum wider than it had ever been stretched, making Deidara flinch suddenly. The presence of something so thick within his rear sent the human instincts within the blonde alive with new commands to expel the foreign object like waste, and his muscles subconsciously obeyed, clamping down and pushing at the half demon's member as if trying to pass it out.

The sudden intense pressure sent Inuyasha's sight into a murky haze, making him bow over in shock. The squeeze wasn't powerful enough to expel him, but enough to make him quake all over. It was so thrilling having that much pressure encircling his head, clamping down without letting up. But he wanted that feeling along his length. Using his inherited strength, Inuyasha squeezed inside, against the other until he was half sheathed within. He continued pressing in, filling the cavity through all of the squeals and cries of insecurity from the ningyo, until his head pressed firmly against the back of the hole, the hot spot.

With the burning head of Inuyasha's manhood pressed straight into him, the tip ground against the ningyo's sensitive, reactive prostate. The action sent bolts of intense heat and pleasure through Deidara's veins in a similar manner as when the hanyou had massaged his perineum, but with only a thin membrane separating the two organs as opposed to several inches of muscle, the bliss was magnified by several times. His hips lurching upwards out of some instinctual rejoinder to the stimulus of his male gland, Deidara's head flew back and his throat erupted in a loud, husky moan. At the same time, his rectal muscles seemed to become paralyzed and slackened their grip, though that's not to say the entrance became loose.

Several heated seconds passed before there was another movement, feeling he had given enough time for Deidara to adjust. Leaning back, Inuyasha pulled a few inched out, leaving a space inside for him to work with. Not to rush the action, he rocked his hips, smoothly and evenly gliding in and out, again and again hitting the hypersensitive mark to please his new lover.

Beneath the hanyou, Deidara's back arched and his fingers found a firm hold in the blankets below him while his eyes rolled back in sheer euphoria. The sensation was like having liquid lightning on fire pouring through his every corpuscle, galvanizing his senses and bringing him to life with pleasure. It was his first time mating, and for some reason he had assumed due to the rough nature of nature, that the action would bring more pain than pleasure. With this, however, his body was nearly overloaded with the white-hot intensity of ecstasy, every pass of Inuyasha's member bringing his burning pleasure-center to life.

Inuyasha smiled as he watched the pleasure explode from Deidara's face, making it obvious that he was doing well in taking his mind off of the problem. He had settled on gripping the bent knees on each side, pitching smoothly into their love-making as to please them both. The hanyou couldn't help but saver the tantalizing noises emitted from the blonde, added to the tightness of the rectum made for a mind-blowing experience, making it almost impossible not to ravish the man beneath him. But diligently he continued rocking them, not creating too much friction, but enough to slowly build him to his own climax.

Under the weight of the stimulation surging upward from his singing prostate, Deidara nearly lost all thought, his head fogging over with the thick, hot bliss while his eyes clouded until all he could see was a fuzzy version of the ceiling overhead smattered with stars. His chest rumbled and his throat echoed with the gasping sounds of pleasure as he wordlessly sounded his mating calls, vocalizing his euphoria so that Inuyasha would be able to hear how good the connection felt. Of course even if he'd been able to speak properly, the blonde would not have known the appropriate words to tell his lover amid their heated sex in any case. The only possibility was for him to howl and moan in utter bliss, gripping the sheets and arching his spine the way his body seemed to naturally.

Smirking down to their connecting flesh, the rhythm slightly faltered as Inuyasha adjusted himself, but then picked up speed for the sake of time and loss of stamina. The vocals of the receiver increased, the blonde now wailing into the room as his body was shaken and thrilled internally. With a spur of the moment thought, the mutt released a knee and instead wrapped his fingers around the still oozing member, pumping it liberally in time with his hips.

There was a moment during which Deidara's voice caught in his throat and he nearly choked on his own screams of bliss while his prostate and painfully stiff member were both taken into pleasure by the hanyou hunched over him. Bucking his hips, the blonde couldn't help himself and he wriggled and writhed in the grip of the hanyou. He arched and his breath heaved in desperate gasps while he fought vainly to keep his head under the intense pressure of ecstasy. Finally he could hardly bear it and the bliss found its way out of every exit; it exploded from his throat, leaked from his eyes and tightened his grip on the sheets below until finally it was bubbling at the base of his erection, threatening to leap forward.

With all of this euphoria blasting from beneath him, it was hard for Inuyasha to still his own orgasm, the wriggling bringing him dangerously close to finishing without the blonde. On his last leg, the hanyou thrust himself deep inside, pressing his entire length within and growling deep in his chest, setting him off and opening the flow of his seed into the tight channel.

Somewhere in the foggy back of Deidara's mind, he was aware of the hot release plunging through and invading every inch of his insides, but like most things human, it was another aspect he did not understand. He couldn't think to question it, or even completely process it with the majority of his mind blinded by sheer the pleasure that pounded through his system until he screamed and wept in ecstasy. Again the blonde's orgasm came, only serving to increase the flow of his unbarred milt; the steady trickle arching through the air and squirting across his stomach for a few, hot moments which felt like ages suspended in time.

As the waves of ecstasy slowly faded to a warm satisfaction, Inuyasha doubled over, leaning his forearms on either side of the hot body below his and hovering his face over the ribbons of seed scattered over the blonde's abs. He lapped up a few streams before planting a loving kiss on the sculpted muscles.

"Did that- did that do it? How do you feel?"

For the longest time, Deidara's eyes stayed closed as he fought off the fatigue of post-ejaculation. Steadily his heavy breaths evened out and he found some sort of comfort and calmness, but still the hanyou could tell that he wasn't relaxing completely the way he should be after his orgasm. He continued to tremble slightly and the heat of his body didn't diminish, though the blonde did manage to crack his eyes open and smile up at Inuyasha. There was almost an apologetic look in those clear cerulean eyes as he reached out with an exhausted hand and brushed the damp tresses from Inuyasha's face.

"That… that felt… Inuyasha, it felt so good un…" Still the blonde winced regarding to the feeling of the tightness in his groin returning.

Even with the response he was hoping for, the mutt growled and leaned his forehead to rest on his flesh.

"No way… again? I… I d-don't…. Deidara, I don't know what else to do. I mean… We could try this again, but I don't' think it'll help. I... I don't know."

"I… don't think it's going to stop either un… not until the season's over un…" Again he flinched and turned away, not wanting to look at the confounded expression on Inuyasha's face; it made him feel like a freak, an abnormality, trash.

"And when does the season end, kid? Do you know?" The half demon tried to be soft and tender, but there was still pity that rose in his voice.

"Anywhere from eight days, to thirty un… according to Sasori-Danna… I've really only… ah! L-lived through one season as a mature adult un…"

Even then the strength in Deidara's erection was returning, pressing against Inuyasha as if taunting him. He simply growled again and dug his claws into the soft sheets surrounding them.

"I think… I think you need to go back. I can take care of you 'til the rain lets up… in a few hours, but then…I'll take you home."

Deidara whimpered quietly at the thought of being kept from his natural instinct for still longer, but at the same time, there was a more human part of him that would be contented to mate with the hanyou… constantly… for the next several weeks. The idea wasn't as horrible as it sounded to him however. The ningyo had incredible, hormone-fueled stamina during the season of _must_, surviving without food or rest for the duration of time lest they lose their place in the race to fertilize the future posterity. It was strange, above all other things, for the merman to be feeling drawn between two desires; the primeval urge to sew his seeds and further his genetic lineage, and the newer wish to stay by Inuyasha's side. Finally he sighed and nodded, placing his palm softly against Inuyasha's cheek.

"When the rain lets out, take me to the bay, but wait for me un…" He looked up at the hanyou with desperate adoration swimming in his eyes, "I'll return as soon as the must has faded un…"

To that the silver-hair raised his head, meeting the merman's glossy eyes. So… things had gone well. He had enjoyed it as much as… this was great!

"So… you'll come back to visit, or… Never mind, we'll figure that all out after this whole thing is over, but for now…" he smirked slyly and climbed up to connect their lips again, gently rocking his hips with Deidara's to stir the embers of pleasure.

For the next several hours, the little house was full to the roof of the sounds of shaking timbers and ecstasy as the hanyou and the ningyo treated the symptom and waited out the storm. The heat and pleasure rose and fell like the tides of passion as their connection rocked the lovers' bodies. Finally after what must have been Deidara's fifth or sixth release, he flopped back with his arms spread, panting to catch his breath.

"I… Inuyasha… is it still raining un?"

A pointed ear flicked out towards the door, the little pitter-patter indicating it had indeed slowed down and now the world was merely dripping with the aftermath. Inuyasha leaned up from Deidara's still weeping cock and wiped his lips.

"No, I think it's safe now. But we need to cover you up- just in case."

"Nnnnnnn…." The blonde protested weakly putting both palms groggily in Inuyasha's face as if to shove him off. "I don't wanna wear clothes again! I don't like them at all un!" Despite his less than compliant behavior, he sat up and held his dizzy head, wavering for a moment as if at any moment he might faint from simple exhaustion.

Quick to aid, a steady hand found the man's shoulder, holding him steady until he simply cringed from the pressure below.

"Yes, you have to wear them. We'll be in public, and the clothes will block dripping trees form hitting your back. You'll live, kid."

Deidara grumbled and wriggled, but eventually gave in, his discomfort and fatigue lessening his demeanor and making him grouchier and brattier than before. Though with coaxing, he allowed Inuyasha to tie the cloak around his shoulders again, he still wouldn't cooperate when it came to the pants.

"I don't want to wear them un. It will feel too tight and make a mess and I'll have to stay in my own milt un."

"Again, public. People don't just walk around with no pants on, especially with their 'bits' sticking out. It's will only be for a short while," he moved in sensually and nibbled a kiss into the tender flesh of his neck, "…then I'll never make you wear pants again."

Giving a cry that almost sounded like a moan towards the very end, the blonde chewed his lip and squeezed his eyes close together, feeling his cheeks begin to burn hotter. He turned away, not even realizing the consequences of his actions until Inuyasha took the motion as an invitation and began to shower the other man's neck with warm, soft kisses.

"Ahn… a-at least something to keep it from dripping un…?"

Still attacking the already pink, hot skin, the hanyou huffed.

"Mmm we'll think of something. Nnnn kid… we better leave soon, or I'm going to eat you alive."

Taking a hold of the hanyou's shoulders, Deidara groaned and his brows furrowed as he tried to shove the other man off of him to little affect in his tired state.

"Mmmmnnnnn…" he groaned "s-stop it Inu-kun… I want to go back un… I don't want to mate anymore… it makes me too tired un…" Though his words were denying the action, he couldn't say that it didn't please him in some way; the touching and mating was the best feeling he'd ever felt, and it would pain him terribly to leave it all behind, but in the long run it would pain him more to stay.

Taking the hint, Inuyasha left a final kiss on the raw skin and scooted away, lest he be tempted again. He watched Deidara readjust himself on the bed, throwing his legs over the side and trying to put weight on them. It was a struggle, but with some help the pair stood together and eventually put the pants on, as much as the ningyo protested and fought.

Hesitantly, Deidara took a tentative step towards the doorway, but found as soon as he all his weight on one leg, pain washed over him and he nearly collapsed. The blonde fell sideways and caught himself on the edge of the mattress before rolling over to lie on his stomach and whine. As soon as they were free, the ningyo's hands reached backwards and cradled the round cheeks of his rear through the dun cloth of his pants as if to alleviate the new pain that started in his overstretched rear.

Inuyasha silently cursed himself and reached over to his lover, offering a hand to help him stand. He helped the miserable creature up, and for the second time that day the hanyou picked up the merman and held him close.

"I'll carry you, it'll be faster."

The only response that came from the blonde was a pathetic whimper as he wrapped his arms around Inuyasha's neck to keep himself steady while being carried.


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15 -

With his heart again pounding in his throat and gills flaring with urgency, Deidara thrashed in the shallows, only taking the time to glance once over his shoulder towards the man he was leaving behind before his powerful tail rocketed him out into the deep blue waters of the Sagami Bay. Under the rolling brine, the hormones were so thick that the merman nearly choked on the pheromones of his own kind as still he powered towards their source. His throat heaved as his gills worked furiously through the water to keep his blood oxygenated as he arched through the waves towards the alcove in the cliffs which was home to the Akatsuki pod. Fighting his way past currents and weaving through schools of fish that any other day would have tempted his appetite, the blonde raced forward with all the strength of youth and the vigor of the mating season. His jaws were kept parted, constantly tasting the fertile waters for the scent of fresh ova and his instinctually desired goal.

As he rounded a rolling bend into the sheltered nook in the rocks, Deidara's senses were suddenly assaulted with the astringent tastes and scents of his brethren, all tangled up in the rush of hormones too. The ningyo seemed to swarm around the empty clearing, kicking up sand and shreds of sea-moss as they frenzied, the water having become thick, cloudy and choked by the uncontrollable reproductive milt until the primeval males could hardly breathe their own water. Without hesitation, the koi-tail dove into the throng of circling males, parting his lips and sniffing over the hides of each of his clan-mates. When his surface evaluation gave off no positive result, the scene suddenly became rough as the blonde sunk his teeth into the soft flank of Itachi, the raven-haired merman with the tail of a spotted gar. The dark-haired merman snarled and twisted, his own teeth finding Kakuzu's shoulder who whirled and found a claw-hold in Kisame's tail. All at once the alcove seemed to erupt into frantic violence, each of the males snapping and clawing at once another, tearing out tufts of hair and flaying scales and drawing blood. Even as the waters became still all the more fogged with blood and the scent of fear, there was a sudden stop to the rush ending with Deidara pinned against the crags by his wrists. He was bleeding from a gash down the right flank of his beautiful tail and from a heavy notch in his left ear and several bite marks riddled his forearms and shoulders. There were places where his long-blond hair had been torn and cropped in the fray and with dilated pupils he struggled against the hands of his pod, thrashing and hissing violently, his blood pounding with the native desire to find an ova and reproduce.

Before he could spit a command to release him, claws racked across his cheek and lips, silencing him and calming the frantic racing of his thoughts for a moment, allowing him to look up with clear eyes at the ningyo that held him down. To suppress the young merman's frenzied haste, Sasori, pressed his palms against both of Deidara's shoulders, the like being a key pressure point in the ningyo which slows a frantic heart rate. When finally his roaring senses had dulled to a quiet buzz, the blonde looked around his comrades, finding a clan much more heavily weathered than the one he had known before. There was a certain quality of defeat about them; the scars riddling their hides were more numerous than they had been a week before.

"Susanoo-no-mikoto…" he cursed quietly, his pupils constricting back to normal as his eyes wandered the few of his pod that held him down, "what happened un?"

"It was an ambush…" came Kakuzu's ragged, low voice as he hung his head solemnly, still keeping a firm grip of the younger merman's left wrist. "As soon as the _must_ hit, the Otogakure invaded our camp… with that damned naga in the lead… we didn't stand a chance." A quiet, remorseful air clung to the faces of all the ningyo that remained to hold Deidara down and keep him calm.

"We were matched male for male, but Orochimaru's venom quickly tipped the scales in Otogakure's favor…" Sasori sighed and looked away, keeping the heels of his palms pressed into the koi-tail's shoulders if only to suppress his rising panic.

Kakuzu frowned and averted his eyes as well, a custom that all ningyo obeyed out of superstition when the dead were discussed.

"That snake bit Hidan to keep his venom from endangering his own men, and when he went after Konan, Pein stepped in to stop him. Pein pierced Orochimaru three times through the stomach with his deadly poison, but not before he took a nasty bite to the neck…"

Kisame who had been staring at the bluffs he'd been holding the blonde's right wrist to picked up where it pained his clan-mates too much to continue.

"Of course with their alpha dead, the Otogakure dispersed like a school of minnows, but leaving us down three males since you abandoned us, Deidara. In the peak of heat, Konan disappeared into her den, defending herself and the egg with a three-pronged spear. She's inconsolable and won't allow a soul near the egg to fertilize it. If nothing is done soon, the Akatsuki won't have an offspring this season because the egg will die."

"H-hasn't anyone tried to take her away from the egg un? Surely she won't stab one of her own!" Deidara turned towards his shark-skinned ally, but Kisame only shook his head slowly.

"She's bent on protecting that egg come hell or low water…" Itachi murmured as he turned slowly to look full into the younger merman's eyes, showing the carnage that had befallen his face. Though the wound had healed over very quickly the way they do in most ningyo, the rippling skin that now covered the gar-tail's empty right eye-socket. The blonde shuddered and quickly looked away, afraid to look onto the empty socket lest his soul be pulled in as is said in old maid's tales. "She will not have a one of us… but perhaps _you_, Deidara… you and the lagos are close… _friends_… perhaps she would lay down her arms for you. Else we've learned to survive without you once; we can surely do it again…"

The blonde swallowed hard, knowing he would be thrown into the lionfish's den for turning his back on the clan just in time for disaster to strike with deadly purpose. But at the same time, his heart pounded against his collar bone and his gills flared at the prospect of reaching his instinctually lusted goal and having the opportunity to spread his genes for another generation of ningyo. With a canceling mixture of eagerness and reservation, Deidara agreed and was prodded on his way towards Konan's den around the private side of the cliffs.

At first, the young merman kept his lips sealed as if to keep from tasting the pheromones he was sure were coursing through the water, and upon peeking into the crevice in the bluff, the den seemed empty. He parted his lips, curling and pushing his textured sensory organ forward, smelling and tasting the water as he ventured his head into the hole in the crags. As soon as the new water hit his taste buds, however, his brain was awash in a maddening concoction of fertility hormones and the pulse-pounding drive to fertilize the fresh ova. He had to dig his claws into the rocks to keep himself from rushing forward and suffering the same fate as Itachi, though the overpowering promise of reproduction made the urge difficult to fight off. Still he made his approach cautious, only daring to whisper through his gills.

"Konan un?" He ventured another step forward on his palms, tilting his head to the side in hopes of finding some light to shed on the female. "I can smell you, are you awake un?"

Before he could utter another word, there was a feral snarl followed by a wickedly cold point pressed firmly against his throat, dimpling the soft tissue and threatening to tear through like wet paper. The blonde stifled a fearful gulp and went stone-rigid, his gills flaring outward in a common expression of silent fear. With a few flicks of her tail, the mermaid inside choked up on her weapon, swimming slowly into the light to meet with Deidara's eyes. What he saw reflected in the female's eyes was a terrifyingly intense glint of maternal instinct; so much time curled up in her dark cave had stretched Konan's pupils until they nearly encompassed her irises and she barred her fangs like a savage beast defending her unfertilized brood.

"Wait, Konan! It's me un! It's Deidara!" He managed to gasp before the wrasse-tail ran him through; throwing his palms up as if to show is unconditional surrender. For a heart-stopping moment, the fear of being killed actually overrode his instinct to fertilize the egg he could practically _taste_ in the back of the cave.

Keeping her threat level with the blonde's gullet, the mermaid continued to snarl and advance, pushing Deidara steadily backwards until the light from above shed fully on his tattered form. As the rippling light from the surface met her unconditioned eyes, the wrasse-tail paused for a moment, allowing herself time to adjust to the near-blinding brightness of the outside world. As her vision cleared, it was like the moon setting on the rampage of a lunatic and her snarl retracted until she found herself staring at the male ningyo with a sort of dazed look in her eyes.

There was a frightening moment during which the koi-tail could not read his friend's movements or expression and feared that at any moment, she could strike and kill him out of a mere whim. But no, as the shock began to fade, the sparkle of curiosity returned to the young mermaid's eyes and as if meeting Deidara for the first time, she circled him inquisitively. She ran her fingers across his skin and grazed her lips over his seeping wounds, taking a nibble for herself here and there. As the male remained rigid, cling to the lip of her den at arm's length to avoid moving his tail, she inspected every aspect of him, even brining her nose to his soft underbelly and sniffing out the powerful hormones in his milt. For what seemed like ages she circled and prodded, all the while clutching at her harpoon as if it was her own child. All the while she seemed to ease up in mood and demeanor, finding comfort in a familiar scent enough to calm her seasonal fury. In some laps of her maternal instinct to kill the intruder, the spear slipped from her palm and sailed down into the murky depths of the chasm below. She rested her palm against Deidara's shoulder blade in a kindly gesture as if to show she trusted him but at the same time showed reservations about allowing him into her inner sanctum. The young male looked up at the mermaid, and held her gaze for a moment before he noticed that the harpoon she'd been coddling had been cast aside.

Before Konan could protest, the blonde had released his grasp of the edge of the cliff and found a new claw hold in her shoulders, overpowering her easily and throwing her against the floor of the narrow cave. With a dominant gleam in his eye, the koi-tail snarled ferociously at her, lending to a new scrap between the merfolk. To protect herself and her egg, the wrasse-tail bit first, sinking her fangs into the soft skin and the base of the other's neck, but with the strength of the male towering over her, she was quickly overcome as Deidara returned with several warning bites to her neck and shoulders. With blood seeping from her new punctures and pain sending her nerves on edge, Konan rolled away as quickly as possible, getting herself out of the path between the male and his most craved prize.

Before the mother had time to change her mind, the younger ningyo slipped into the back of the cave, locating the egg by its powerful scent and finally hunching over his reward. The blue-haired female took his place clinging to the lip of the cave, clutching at her seeping wounds with one hand while warning, dominant growls came from her den. Undulating his tail as if swimming in short bursts, Deidara's milt came in a rush more powerful than before with the added stimulus of the egg's pheromones. He crouched over the ova, facing the only entrance to the den and snarled all the while he fertilized the egg, daring any other ningyo to interfere with his reproduction. His head jerked back and forth with wild, animalistic movements, his fangs bared as his hips and tail rocked quickly over the ova covering it with a constant stream of thick milt in the hopes that some of the reproductive sperm would survive and penetrate the thick skin and find the center to begin new life.

The defiant snarling went on for hours which bled into days and then into weeks as the season forged on, running its feverish course through the young merman's blood. Several times Konan had ventured into her own cave, only to be chased away by a furious blonde and a few savage bites or scratches. For the duration of _must_ Deidara did not eat, nor did he rest while his position was held, covering his potential posterity with the male fluids that would make it so. By the time the hormones had all faded, the koi-tail was malnourished and exhausted, yet too afraid of being attacked by his own clansmen to set a single scale outside of Konan's den. Of course after all the tensions had faded, the mother-to-be was allowed into the inner sanctum to watch over the now fertilized zygote and fan it dotingly with fresh water. The merfolk dared not bring the egg into the light lest it attract any number of scavenging predators, but instinct told them both that the large, soft sphere was growing alarmingly fast, fed from the nutrients planted inside the rubbery shell. Several times Deidara nervously sniffed at the zygote, reaffirming that it smelled of him and almost exclusively him save for the scent of its mother.

Still with the distraction of the season of instinct free from the young merman's mind, his thoughts drifted back to shore and one day he slipped out while Konan slept curled around the egg and found his way to the beaches where he and Inuyasha had first met. He scanned the shoreline in search of that splash of red robes that always told him where the half demon was, but with no luck. His heart sank, and with a furrowed brow, the blonde circled the shallows just past where the waves broke, as if pacing nervously. He spent a little while hunting crabs, picking mollusks from the rocks, and filling his wasted belly, but nothing distracted him long from watching the beach with a sinking heart.

Still back in the hollow, Konan too was becoming worried. The duty of parenting was always sacred to the breeding male, like it was with seahorses and emperor penguins. It was very rare for the father to disappear, even if on the brink of starvation; and completely abandoning his duty of protection was completely unheard of. And now again Deidara had vanished, neglecting his clan and his future offspring, leaving Konan with the burden of an un-hatched child to keep ventilated and protected while tending to her own healing wounds. It put worry in the lagos's heart, even as she held the twitching egg to her bosom, imagining the infant fully developed and in her arms.

As it would be, Deidara's young heart was not at all in protecting his posterity or the mother of his spawn. His eyes were too fixed on the surface world as he waited with a heavy heart for the slightest sign that the hanyou he had fallen in love with would return for him as he had promised.


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16 -

Returning to where he'd always spent his afternoons listening to the roaring and crashing of the waves, Deidara treaded water just fifty meters from shore, heaving a heavy sigh through his gills as he stared longingly at the deserted beach. He'd been in the same spot since the sun was high in the sky had been wishing all day to see even the slightest glimpse of his lover. There was what appeared to be a long-since abandoned fire pit dug into the sand filled with grey and blackened cinders, but even the little sign didn't give him much hope. There were no fresh footprints left between the licking waves and the high-tide line and now the light overhead was beginning to fade. As the sun sunk lower, the sky was slowly being painted in beautiful shades of purple and pink, the wispy clouds that trundled along glowing on their sunward sides like molten gold. Yet with determination and longing in his heart, the ningyo remained steadfast telling himself over and over that Inuyasha had promised to wait for him and that the hanyou had simply needed to return to the village to resupply and would be back any minute.

The stars picked their ways delicately across the sky as gradually the day transitioned into night and the moon overhead poured its silver light over the warm, cresting waves, illuminating the one blonde head still bobbing in the surf. Sometime in the night, the merman must have drifted off to sleep because he woke up wrapped smoothly around a boulder roughly twelve feet below the surface. The morning tide was in and the water stretched an extra ten feet inland, making Deidara smile slightly at the thought of being just a few feet closer to the hanyou. While he was underwater still, he spent a good portion of the morning on the hunt, cracking open unfortunate mollusks and ripping the heads off of fish that were too slow to escape his fingers. With a full belly, the blonde rose again to the surface, feeling a bit like he had while he was caring for Inuyasha's injured leg. It was a warming, comforting sensation, and he couldn't help but smile as he thrust his tail and powered up to the surface.

The merman scanned the beach again, but still no sign of his lover right away. He puffed out his cheeks in frustration and decided again to wait; he was determined to wait out his life for the other male, their night of desperate mating had served its chemical purpose. Now in Deidara's mind, the only thing that could please him from a mating standpoint was the hanyou, the sensation of his scent, his taste, the feeling of his skin and the strange and powerful way he kissed… The ningyo had to shake his head to chase away the lusty thoughts lest he put himself in an undesired position with his lover nowhere in sight. Feeling his heart sink a little as he gazed again across the empty beach, Deidara allowed his eyes to close again, focusing on listening to the crashing waves and enjoying the sound of true beauty.

The sound of the waves pounding against the sand was offset by a secondary splash between the rhythmic roar, causing Deidara to peek one lid open. Immediately his eye darted to a big, red blotch on the beach, and opening both saw what appeared to be Inuyasha's robes, but where was their owner? As you might have guessed, in the next instant, a pair of strong arms wrapped around his waste from behind, causing the merman to instantly go ridged, his dorsal fin arching outward and pressing against bare skin. The blonde let out a squeal of surprise before a familiar, wonderful scent flooded his nose, and he found himself nearly melting in the arms of the hanyou. He couldn't help himself; as soon as he was given a little room to move, he whirled around in Inuyasha's arms and instantly connected their lips, forcing the other man underwater while he pressed in deeper and more fervently.

The half-breed responded almost instantly, tightening his grip on the merman and returning the kiss, blowing a few bubbles from his nose while opening his mouth as forcing his tongue past Deidara's waiting lips. In the brine their maws twisted together in a kind of passionate heat while the blonde made soft, appreciative cooing noises through his gills. When Inuyasha finally gave the other male's long, golden tresses a sharp tug, the ningyo carried him up to the surface where he spat out a mouthful of sea water and took in a deep breath. As soon as the half-breed's lungs were full to their brims, he dove at Deidara again, clutching him even more tightly and pressing their mouths together, slipping his tongue out and rubbing it again across the sensory organ on the inside of the merman's lip. With a soft grown of pleasure, the ningyo smoothed his hands down the other male's flanks, finding him bear in all regions. With delight, the blonde wrapped his beautiful, sleek tail around Inuyasha's legs as if to hold their bodies all the more close until again an urgent tug from his lover signaled another need for breath.

On the surface again, the hanyou gasped for breath, his face flushing slightly while the merman held him around the torso, using his muscular tail to keep the two at the surface. Deidara smiled silently while the other male combed his clawed fingers through the ningyo's golden hair, sighing contentedly and staring into the bright, blue eyes. All at once he pulled the blonde head to his chest and held it fast, nuzzling the crown affectionately and smoothing one hand down the merman's shoulders.

"God, I missed you Deidara… I was afraid… I thought you weren't coming back." The mutt shivered slightly and adjusted his grip on the ningyo as they both began to sink until their heads were both underwater. Deidara ran his clawed fingers delicately over the hanyou's cheek, brushing away the wayward silver tresses that floated in front of his face. The blonde smiled and blinked slowly.

"I can't say that I missed you during the must un; the ningyo mind does not work that way… but as soon as the season was over I felt my heart ache in my throat for you un. In these past few days, I've missed you like the high shore misses the tide. I've missed everything about you; your voice, your scent, your taste, the way you make me feel un. I've missed it all."

In the next instant the waves were around their necks again, allowing the land-dweller to take in his air again, spending a moment to let all the things Deidara had told him soak in. There was a long pause as clearly the words took a while to seep through the half demon's dense skull, but when they did, his wild golden eyes lit up like fireworks.

"Kid, are you saying you want to… you know… what we did last time I saw you…?" His voice was low and hopeful, as if reaching out to a strange beast and hoping not to be bitten. The only response he received was a wide grin and a knowing nod from the blonde in his arms.

In the shallows of a private and familiar cove on shoals of dark sand surrounded by volcanic bluffs that would keep out all eyes but those of the merman, his lover and the gulls overhead, the pair finally came to stop. On the shelf, Deidara could submerge in about two feet of water with sand at his back while Inuyasha crouched overhead; free to breathe the air, only dipping his head below the surface to hear his lover speak. As he did so, the merman underneath him wriggled, undulating his powerful fin and pressing his warm belly against the hanyou's abdomen.

"Inuyasha un… you showed me your way, the way that mammals mate. Now I want to show you how the ningyo do un." Again the merman arched his back and pushed his stomach forward, creating friction with his soft underbelly and the sensitive flesh between Inuyasha's legs. The blonde whined and closed his eyes, clearly finding pleasure in the rubbing of their warm skins as his face contorted with momentary bliss. He tensed for a moment, and had to force himself to lie still beneath the other, breath heaving through his gills as he tried his best to calm his racing heart. "You have to rub me un…" the merman trailed off as he looked over his shoulder, glancing to his left hand as the limb moved slowly, gracefully through the water. He bit his lip as the palm traveled lower until it eventually pressed against the soft skin of his underbelly, the milky white, smooth flesh on the bottom side of his tail, free of scales and warm to the touch.

He stroked his own hand over the soft skin, closing his eyes and whining slightly, spreading his fingers cautiously as he rubbed down the full length of the sensitive flesh. Inuyasha watched and drank in the sight, ears standing erect on the top of his head as he could even hear a quiet moan slip through his partner's lips from above the water as the palm began to climb back up. Before the hand could begin another pass down the tender underbelly, the hanyou stopped it, replacing it with his own hand and cautiously stroking down the merman's lower half, passing carefully over the vent without bothering the little slit and continuing down the full length. The ningyo clearly yelped, his face twisting with pleasure as his tail jerked up into the touch of his lover. Before Inuyasha could stop it, the ningyo's hands were both covering up the back of his palm, pressing it more firmly into his skin, grinding the heel against his reactive flesh and driving another squeal of joy from Deidara's lips.

Gradually increasing his pace, the half breed continued to stroke his lover's reactive belly firmly, careful not to draw his razor sharp claws across the vulnerable side of the merman. As the tempo stepped up, Deidara's hands found their way to fisting in the sand, grasping at the granules only for them to slip through his fingers. Finally his palms came to rest squeezing into the hanyou's thighs while Inuyasha continued to give him pleasure, rubbing against his underbelly and making the merman writhe in bliss.

As it was the ningyo did not reproduce sexually, but that is not to say they did not find pleasure in their own means of stimulation. Typically in pairs but occasionally solo or in groups, merfolk would rub against each other's soft stomachs. The skin of the underside was riddled with nerve endings which, when touched or brushed against conveyed shocking pleasure equivocal to the stimulation of mammalian sex organs. In a way it was a means for them to create passionate, eternal bonds with one another through shared bliss, much the way many land-creatures found life-mates. When a ningyo is stimulated in such a way by another, it triggers a release of oxytocin in the brain which will from then on only be triggered by the hormones of _that_ ningyo and no other. To an effect, first mating creates an everlasting, sexual bond between the two. As it were, Inuyasha had also been Deidara's first brush with sexuality.

With the merman arching and squealing with delight underneath him, Inuyasha got an idea, after all, the only thing the blonde wanted was friction in his nether region, and it didn't matter where that friction came from. Careful to keep Deidara from realizing the switch-up until it was over; the hanyou removed his hand, quickly replacing it by adjusting his knees and lowering his hips until his crotch pressed against the hot underside of his lover. Rocking his pelvis, the mutt ground his own loins against the tender, white flesh, causing the ningyo to buck in response, pressing their bodies flush together with a lustful whine. Groaning at the new feeling, Inuyasha moved again, thrusting his manhood against his partner's vulnerable side, stimulating them both. He could feel the koi-tail's grip tighten on his thighs as the wriggling merman began to wave his tail frantically, grinding their hot skins together and throwing his head back into the dark sand.

The hanyou wiped sweat from his brow, smearing his silver bangs back as he tried to keep his balance. One hand was dug into the loos sand underneath while the other wrapped tenderly under the arch of Deidara's back, holding the blonde lovingly close while continuing to rub and press against him. The two rocked and pushed at the water, making little waves lap at the gentle, tireless shores as in shifting harmony they made love like the beach and the ocean crushing against each other passionately. Their sounds of bliss came in and out like the tides in spurts of howling pleasure and soft, gasping astonishment.

With their shared pleasure achieved, it wasn't long before in the calm waters the pair were making their own waves, thrashing and jerking as their nerves were pressed as firmly together as possible. The half demon howled in ecstasy as the heat from his mate bled upwards with every hump while below the surface, Deidara squealed shrilly with euphoria. Their spines were bent into perfect mirrors of each other as finally the blonde screamed so loud his voice made the water ripple. Grinding against the beautiful creature beneath him didn't put Inuyasha in a much better position as he let out a long, low whine, joining the merman in his orgasm. Though there was no release with the koi-tail's climax, Inuyasha groaned as his seed clouded the already churned-up waters, forcing Deidara to breathe in his essence for a moment before the juices dispersed.

As the pair came down gradually from the precipice of sexual fulfillment, Inuyasha clawed his way up to the shore, collapsing forward with his cheek in the sand and his body still partially submerged. The merman followed suit, curling up and wrapping his arms around the half demon's legs affectionately. He nuzzled the inside of his lover's knee as if in tender thanks before the pair found rest to the steady rhythm of distant waves licking at rougher shores.


	18. Chapter 17

Breathing low, Inuyasha took in a heavy lungful of salty air, his pointed ear rotated towards the sound of squabbling seagulls and waves breaking against distant bluffs. Gradually he allowed the quiet sounds awaken him from his nap; yawning and stretching the hanyou realized with a drowsy smile there was a weight holding his legs down. Propping himself up on his elbows, Inuyasha's lips stretched into a smile at the sight of the long, lean and lovely creature wrapped around his knees.

Having fallen asleep with the merman in his lap, the blonde mop of hair nestled in his loins. Grinning he tousled it, trying to stir the male.

"Hey you... Deidara? How long you been out of the water?" Even though his tail remained in the shallows and was constantly bathed by the returning waves, his torso was dry, having slept on Inuyasha's dry abs.

The ningyo trembled, arching his back and stretching his arms forward, lifting his head and his heavy eyes. The blonde's lips turned up until he was grinning softly, his pointed teeth showing with a kind of mischievous nature. Slapping the surface of the water lazily with his elegant tail, he took a firm hold of Inuyasha's knees. Before the half-breed could make a word of protest, the merman was dragging him backwards into the warm cove with his sleek, muscular tail.

He tried his best not to panic, knowing consciously that the creature wasn't trying to drown him and pull him to his death, but the hanyou still fought slightly against the action until he was farther out, his body floating alongside his lover's.

With another good tug, the pair was fully submerged, Deidara holding his mate's chest against his own, smiling widely at the other male. It looked for a moment like he was about to say something, but the ningyo must have thought better of it and instead pressed his mouth against the half breed's holding his weightless body close until he felt bubbles. Before his lover ran out of air entirely, the merman thrust his tail, churning the sand at the bottom of the cove and forcing the pair of them to break the surface.

Taking in his lungful the mutt grinned as Deidara leaned in for another fresh kiss.

"You really-mmm.. like doing that don't…. you," he muttered between their lips, trying to speak through his lover's eager pecks. "So are we just going to—nnnnn- swim all-… day and make out?"

The merman's eyes lowered knowingly and he nibbled at his lover's neck as he let them sink under the surface, drawing back to rub the tip of his nose against the hanyou's.

"There is nothing that I would like more…" he kissed Inuyasha's lips gently, appearing almost reluctant to pull away. "But why don't we get away from the ocean for today un? That is, if you don't mind…"

Inuyasha's eyes went wide and he kicked, the koi getting the idea and bringing them back up.

"Mind? That's great! I just didn't think you'd want to… ya know being dry and all." He squeezed a bit with his arms around the blonde's neck, grinning happily.

Responding happily the ningyo gave a fierce tug on the other male's shoulders, offsetting his balance and pulling him eagerly under the water, waving his tail to put them both in motion towards the narrow exit to the cove.

"It's not so much being dry that I don't like but the strangeness of being human, but I'll be anything for you, Inuyasha un." The merman's lips turned up into a wide smile as his arms wrapped around his half demon mate and with a powerful stroke of his tail brought them both spiraling through the brine.

The cold water rushed over their bare bodies and Inuyasha reluctantly clung to the merman, trying to steady himself amongst the strong water and muscular arms holding him. But after they cleared the gap of the cove and swam into open waters the hanyou clung tighter in fear of being seen bare in the arms of another man. But luckily they were alone, the coast still vacant save for the seagulls that loitered.

With some sort of reluctance, Deidara eventually relinquished his grasp on the hanyou when he was certain the other's feet could reach the bottom. Sighing heavily through his gills, the blonde looked longingly after the man he'd fallen head over fins for, shamelessly allowing his eyes to wonder over the strange and wonderful human form as Inuyasha made his way to the shore. Though he dared not draw another centimeter towards the crashing waves, the ningyo waited patiently for the seal to be prepared, spending the time to anticipate the pain of the transformation. He was nervous and anxious, but the natural bond he had felt towards the hanyou since their first mating completely overshadowed the churning in his stomach.

The half-breed quickly pulled on his pants, wanting nothing more than warm cloth to cover his freezing loins. He smirked as a quiet whine came from the waters but pulled on his robes, fishing in his sleeve for the package he had stashed there. Once his clothes were in place he walked closer to the waterline and sat in the sand, laying a thin strip of the sutra on his knee and letting his lover watch him draw the symbol out.

Waiting for the magical seal to be drawn up was almost as painful as the actual transformation, but once the sutra was ready and he'd been carried ashore, it was far too late to back out. He only wished he could take a nervous gulp to help prepare for the grueling shifting and mutation of his ningyo body, but no such luck. As the paper was affixed to his shoulders, Deidara strained to scream if only to find an outlet for the agony, but with lungs still under rapid development, there was nothing.

Not knowing what to do to sooth the pain of his love, Inuyasha reached out and held Deidara's hand, letting it attempt to crush his fingers without worry of that actually happening. He cringed through the ningyo's dry, mute screams, and quickly he rewarded his suffering partner with a peck on his sweltering forehead, muttering praises to his efforts and endurance for their love.

When finally the quavering man lay fully transformed on the beach before him, Inuyasha acted quickly, remembering the instructions of the scroll and rolling the agonized man over onto his back. It was a grotesque sight to look at the newly formed human with his chest appearing nearly caved in, and though the hanyou cringed inwardly, he made haste to press his lips against those of his lover and exhale deeply. With the push, Inuyasha breathed the first lungful into his newly humanized lover. With the fears gasp of air in his chest, Deidara sat bolt-upright and wheezed, choking again on the foreign feeling of having air inside of his body, clutching vainly for anything familiar.

The hanyou quickly rubbed his hand along the man's back, recoiling as his fingered brushed an edge of the delicate paper. He didn't want to think of the pain and disaster that would come if a corner would peel off. Slowly but surely Deidara retaught himself on how to work his lungs, taking in air through his mouth and nose like water and letting the oxygen fill him. Inuyasha waited patiently until the blonde looked confident about his body, easing him onto his feet and letting him get used to holding his weight.

Though he wobbled on unsteady, new legs, clutching at Inuyasha's shoulder while he became reassured with his footing. He seemed to find some kind of sense of balance and cautiously released his grip on the hanyou, only stumble and nearly fall backwards. Not to allow any harm to come to his woozy partner, the silver-haired half breed had his arms around the ningyo, clutching him and easing him to the ground gently where he was sure to be stable.

"Heh," the blonde chuckled embarrassedly, "I guess land-walking is still something I'm not used to un…"

"Well no one can do it perfectly at first. I don't expect someone who's swam their whole life to walk like a champ." He raised the new man up again and helped him take a few more steps, letting his hands hover underneath his arms in case he fell again. As expected he did, not able to coordinate the muscles in his legs in order to take more than a few steps. On his fifth failed attempt at five paces the blonde growled, almost ignoring the reassuring nuzzle from his companion. "Keep trying, you almost got it."

Giving the hanyou an exasperated growl, he finally shouldered the reassuring half demon away. He put his palms in the sand and turned towards Inuyasha with a look of irritation on his face.

"This clearly isn't going anywhere un… Why do I even need to walk un? Wherever you have in mind for us to stay, can't you just… carry me there un?" The blonde did his best to smile coyly, but only managed to appear more relaxed.

"I guess I can pack you around," the mutt sighed, fluffing the drying gold of the man's head, giving him a lighthearted grin. "But we have to get some clothes for you before we go anywhere." The dingy clothes from their last adventure had been stashed close, but he knew he'd have to do some convincing to the stubborn koi in order to be able to use them. Even though Inuyasha never cared of other's opinions, the negative attention from seeing a naked man prancing about public wasn't in his best interest.

"You'll do no such thing un! I refuse to wear your binding human garments! My ancestors' ancestors refused clothing and so too do I un." With a playful scowl on his face, the blonde folded his arms across his chest in refusal. "If that means you can't take me anywhere, then so be it un… what's the matter with the beach anyway un?"

Deflated, the hanyou sat down cross-legged.

"I thought it was you who suggested a walk along land? Plus you're human now, not a fish, so human rules apply. You have to keep warm and protect your skin. In the water your scales keep you safe, but out here you can get scratched or stabbed… and you can sunburn." The mutt looked up to the sun, unclouded and warm.

"Oh what could be so bad about the sun un? It's what warms up the top layer of the water and makes my skin all bronze un, not like pasty old Itachi un." With a carefree smile, the blonde leaned forward and rested his head against Inuyasha's shoulder, sighing trustingly. "Why can't we just, you know, stay here and… I don't know… talk un?"

"Why can't we travel and talk?" he sighed. "I know you don't wanna wear clothes, but… I wanna show you things. The trees and mountains and people. Come on… please?"

His shoulders slumping slightly, the blonde sighed and combing a hand through his air. Internally he cursed the incredibly soft spot in his heart he'd so quickly formed for the hanyou. With a disgruntled but defeated look on his face, the blonde conceded, but not without a final word of protest.

"Fine, but can we save the pants and people for another day un?"

There was no way that either man would get their way, so caving the hybrid nodded and fetched the robe, bringing it around Deidara's shoulders and helped him slip in. Once it was fastened Inuyasha slung the man onto his back and began his tour of the human world, taking his time to walk and let the new human see everything.

The ningyo seemed fascinated by the effects of gravity above the surface of the water, how some creatures were bound to the ground while others seemed to command the sky. It was strange to say the least; where Deidara was from, all the animals in the bay had free range of the waters, none being tied to the sandy bottom save for the lowliest of the urchins and slugs. As the farther into the thick woods they pushed, the more transfixed the blonde became until he clung to his mate's throat in wonderment at the sound of every scurrying creature.

It was like carting a child going outside of their home for the first time, Inuyasha having to name every creature that passed them and every branch and leaf that brushed against him the blonde just had to inspect, breaking off a few and running the limb through his fingers. For a while it was cute, but after some time the hanyou's patience ran out and he found a spot to dump him off at, far from any human scents or sightings but by a wide clearing, allowing him to look about while the half-breed left.

"Wait-where are you going un? Don't leave me here!" the ex-koi yelped, clinging to the leg of Inuyasha's pant as he moved away. "I'm a fish from water un, you can't leave me-"

"Don't worry, I'll be back. I'm hungry, so I'm gonna hunt. I'll bring some for you if you want…"

"Hunt? You mean with a boat and net? But we're so far from shore un… Won't you be gone long?" The confused look the blonde gave him told Inuyasha that the other man had no idea that landfolk could gather their sustenance from the surface and that not all food need be harvested from the ocean. It was interesting, having lived in such a secluded pond, it was as if Deidara could not expect much at all from the men on land… like the sea was the center of the world in his eyes.

"No… you remember the animals all running around here?"

The blonde nodded.

"I eat those. I catch them and eat them."

At first Deidara's face turned to shock, but slowly with a little explanation he connected that fish were to him as the land creatures were to the silver-hair. They were on the same food chain, thus necessary to eat for survival. With a parting pat on the head Inuyasha left, not straying far in search of a quick meal.

While he waited, Deidara allowed his eyes to wonder, untying the knot around his throat that held the dun cloak over his back to allow the gentle breeze to glide over his shoulders. He breathed deep the pungent scents of fresh pine and deciduous rot, sinking his heels into the soft grass under his feet and pulling up clumps of greenery with his toes. He closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of life all around him, a stark contrast to the quiet of the ocean he was used to; the air, however was full of the sounds of birds calling and insects crying.

It didn't take long to corner a few hares and quickly end them, being humane and snapping their necks before they could suffer. The hybrid return with a rabbit in each hand and his companion eyed them curiously. Inuyasha sat himself down and handed his second kill to him and began looking his over, making sure there was no sign of infection or parasites. After he was sure it was clean he looked to see how Deidara was faring, smirking at the puzzling look he received. Taking the initiative he took a bite into his own meal, letting blood well up around his mouth as he ripped out a section of warm meat to chew, discarding the fur from his bite.

Looking the creature over from every angle, the blonde finally found his first attacking point, parting his jaws as wide as possible he clamped his teeth down on the rabbit's skull and pulled. After a moment of fierce tugging, there was a satisfying, yet sickening pop as the head of his prey separated from the vertebrae and tore off. Fresh blood splattered, leaping from the open throat of the hare and smattering Deidara's chest with scarlet. For a moment he felt surprised, looking confusedly at the severed body of his meal while still clutching the head in his jaws before glancing up at Inuyasha for approval.

He sighed and shook his head, motioning for the newbie to drop the head. He did and let it fall into Inuyasha's open hand. Discarding the skull for later he took the body, cracking his knuckles before plunging both sets of claws in and pulling apart the ribcage, opening up the body for organ consumption. To demonstrate he pulled out the liver and popped it into his own hungry mouth, chewing it slowly to let the juices flow past his taste buds.

Looking down at the carnage that had befallen the once neat little creature, Deidara appeared at a loss for what to do next. He wasn't used to disassembling his food before eating it, typically he tore off the heads and other unwanted pieces and swallowed his food whole. Perhaps it was a mammalian behavior, something he could not quite understand, but he had to ask.

"Why take it apart un? Wouldn't it be easier to just swallow it un?"

Thinking his explanation was clear the hanyou had returned to consuming his lunch, so he merely looked over at him until his bite was swallowed. With bloody lips he answered.

"You'll choke. Your throat can't handle big bites, so you have to rip it into smaller pieces, and then chew them to even smaller pieces." With that he took another chomp into the dead rabbit, tearing out another chunk from its flank.

Scooping a portion of the internals out of his rabbit, Deidara twisted his lips in contemplation as if he'd never seen entrails before.

"Humans are so strange. Everything would be much easier if you just had a wider gullet un." With that he threw back the handful of soft, limp flesh, not even bothering to chew as he gulped the mouthful down.

Instantly his throat clamped around the large portion and made him choke, but with determination he kept swallowing until his mouthful was gone. All the while his partner continued eating, watching the spectacle but not daring to laugh. He only mentioned after the blonde took a labored breath after his first bite that chewing would help.

With an indignant huff, the ningyo wiped the blood and juices from his lips with his forearm, his lips turning down as if disapproving of the changes that his body had undergone, narrowing his throat and causing him to choke.

"Well what's the purpose of that? How is it mammals survive without being able to breathe while they eat un?" In a vain attempt to conceal his embarrassment, Deidara sunk his teeth into the flank of his hare, pulling away fur and skin to get at what meat was on the wild game.

The pair dined on their kill, both doing a fine job of skinning their hares by hand and consuming the tender meats inside. After he abandoned the notion to fight this new technique in eating the merman began to actually enjoy the event, not so much favoring the meal over his regular diet but rather the tradition of sitting together and taking time to eat in each other's company.

When finally the pair of them cast aside the carcasses of their cleaned prey, Inuyasha turned to quickly burry the remains lest they attract predators while his companion reached above his head and tightened his satisfied stomach with a wide, upward stretch. Licking his lips and wiping the drying blood from his chest with his palm, the blonde scooted backwards until he could lean back against the trunk of a sturdy oak at the edge of the grassy clearing with a contented sigh.

But only to ruin his satisfied mood Inuyasha returned and returned the robe around him, bringing the garment to wrap around his bare body and firmly tied the sash to his waist.

"I don't care if you hate it. You can't walk around naked."

Disgruntled, the other man immediately yanked at the knot with his fingernails until it came undone and threw the unwanted garment open again.

"You know I hate it when you do that un! There isn't anyone else around, we're alone in the middle of the Mokito-forsaken woods un! Why do you keep insisting on clothes?"

With the sunlight beaming down on them and the lack of cloth to cover Deidara's perfect body, the hanyou stopped for a moment before looking his mind and collapsing into him. He instantly buried his nose into soft, sun colored hair and drank in his salty scent while bringing his fingertips to pull the trim frame of his lover to press against his own.

"Because," he muttered next to the koi's ear, "I don't want anyone to see you. Not that at least… That's mine. Mine and no one else's." With blood still sticking in the cracks of his fangs he smiled next to the blonde. "That and if I have to look at you naked all day I'll go crazy. I'll just eat you up."

There was a moment during which the blonde froze with the other man's teeth grazing his throat, falling perfectly still like instinct told him; but even nature couldn't calm the sudden spike in his heart rate. A wide, almost fearful eye dared to look over at Inuyasha as the hanyou finally pressed his lips against the side of his soft neck.

"Y-you'll what un?" There was no disguising the sudden fear in the ningyo's trembling voice, but in truth he was afraid the hanyou would act on his husky promise and devour him bite by bite, the rabbit having not fully satisfied his hunger.

Hearing the twinge of fright in his lover's voice, he took it to use to his advantage.

"I'll eat you up. All day if I have to. If you don't wear anything I just go crazy…" to add his point the mutt grazed his fangs against the soft jugular, pressing in with the slightest of bites.

The pointed canines dimpling his vulnerable flesh snapped the merman's wary tolerance and at once he jumped. Before Inuyasha could react and rein the fleeing man back in playfully, he was delivered a sharp blow to the cheek as Deidara's fist collided with the side of his face. Managing to scramble away, adrenaline keeping him miraculously on his feet, the blonde wheeled around to face the half demon, prepared to fight off a ravenous attack.

"I will _not_ let you eat me Inuyasha un!" he shouted with hopes that a raised voice might scare the silver-haired man back to his senses.

Inuyasha sat up and rubbed his head, having lost his humor. That tended to happen after he was punched in the face.

"I'm not going to eat you, baka," he grumbled. "It's an…'_expression_'. I meant I was going to… never mind. Would you just cover up already?"

With a huff the blonde pulled the cloak around himself, looking indignant as if to say he could not be held accountable for the hit the mutt had taken to the face.

"You can't expect me to just know these things, we don't have all these… '_expressions_' in my culture un. Under water, when you say you're going to _eat_ something… you just… _eat_ it… you eat it un." He looked at Inuyasha with an expression that begged the question, _'what else could you be talking about?'_

Picking himself up, the hanyou dusted himself and strolled over to Deidara, ignoring the minor cringe from the man at his approach. To calm him he quickly placed their lips together, moving fast as to not let him escape the gesture. He held a calm, soft kiss as not to frighten him, but let a hand roam amongst his long, salt golden locks to massage his scalp and keep him near.

Reluctantly, the blonde gave in to the kiss, taking a hold of Inuyasha's upper arms as the adrenaline that had been keeping on his feet began to fade. As he felt his knees start to give way, Deidara drew away and looked up at his mate with soft eyes, his brows creasing as confusion still burned in the back of his mind.

"So… what _did_ you mean when you said you were going to eat me un?"

"If anything I was going to lick you to death," Inuyasha smirked. Upon receiving another puzzled look, he sighed. "I was implying that I'd jump you bones."

"Jump my what!"

"Oh for the- have sex! I was saying I'd mount you and have sex with you."

At first the merman seemed incredibly surprised, as if he couldn't believe that definition to be true, but when it was the story Inuyasha stuck to, the blonde softened with understanding.

"Well if that's what you meant, why didn't just say so? You've got a really roundabout way of expressing yourself un."

"Look, humans don't just come out and say things like that. We try and be… Subtle."

"You're not subtle, you're vague un. Too vague. I don't know what you're talking about half the time un."

"Well you have a problem with chewing your food and I don't like to announce when I'm horny, so there."

Deidara snickered and leaned against his seme, and the pair fell into a comfortable silence bar of a quick definition of 'horny'.

With a little coaxing and a lot of being used as a crutch, Inuyasha finally got the blonde in motion on his own feet. With light talking again they were on their way towards the little rural village, but taking the long way around as requested by Deidara for sanction of their closeness. Surprising enough, the ningyo kept his sash tied the whole while, agreeing to stay covered for the comfort of his partner.

Having continued their talk of light subjects, the hanyou wondered if it was time to bring up what had been nagging at him since the blonde had departed and returned; what transpired during 'must'? So taking some advice from ningyo culture, he came out with it.

"So kid… how was um… 'must'?"

"Well, it was good I suppose." Deidara looked to his companion walking a little slower so he could keep his eyes on is partner and not his feet. "It's not something I'm used to still, but the other members of my pod have centuries more experience than I, so I guess it's surprising when you think about it… but I won un."

Suddenly their travels ceased, the dup halted in the middle of the vacant dirt road.

"What do you mean 'you won'? Is there some side game or something?"

"Not a game, a contest. It's the whole purpose of the season, to compete and fertilize the egg first un. And, well when I got back to my pod, our alpha, Pein, had been killed in a raid by an enemy pod, so everything was madness, and I was the only one Konan would allow near her un."

"So you…. _you_ fertilized the-…._**you**_ are the father?" Inuyasha released his staggering partner without thinking, the shock hitting him too hard to realize he had left a jelly-legged man to stand alone.

The ningyo stumbled backwards for a moment before finding a handhold in the rough bark of a nearby tree to keep from falling.

"Well, yeah… given the hope that she survives un. It's actually surprising… it was only my second season un… I guess I just have good luck!"

The fact of cultural difference hadn't even struck the hanyou as he clenched his fists over and over, trying not to strike out on something.

"You went and…. Dammit-you have a baby! You have a baby with someone- god dammit!"

The blonde man's brow furrowed as he read the clear anger and frustration on his mate's face, not sure what about his success could have upset the hanyou so much.

"Wha- well it's not certain un… something could still happen… but I don't understand… what's the matter un?" He reached out for a moment, but a low growl from Inuyasha made him draw back, at a loss for what to do.

"Do you… do you like me, kid? Cause I can't share you. If you went and had a child with someone else… I can't do this." Inuyasha still balled his fists but his fierce snarl had disappeared. "I… I don't share."

With a sigh of relief, Deidara took an unsteady step towards the half demon, giving him a soft, sincere smile.

"Do I _like_ you un? Inuyasha I **love** you. Nobody ever said you had to share me un! Where ever did you come up with that idea? Just because I fathered Konan's child doesn't mean I don't love you un!" The ningyo reached out and took a hold of the other man's arm around the elbow, using him for a bit of stability but also pulling himself a little closer.

"Just because- You can't- GAH! Why would you father anyone's child if you didn't love them?"

The blonde again scrunched his eyebrows.

"Since when has love got anything to do with- OH un. Is this one of those human things hm? Procreation equals love?"

"Well yea! Wait," the mutt looked back to the other, now he wearing the perplexed face. "You… love me? Only me?"

"Of course you silly mammal un" Deidara murmured with a smile across his lips leaning against Inuyasha's shoulder. "I've been interested in you since I first laid eyes on you. I've been attracted to you since your wound healed. I've loved you since you brought me ashore and showed me your home. I've been bound to you till death since you first mated me. Until you die, I cannot love another un." Affectionately he nuzzled the hanyou's muscular shoulder making a little cooing noise like a contented sigh.

Having to once more realize the difference in customs, the hybrid patted the man's crown, quietly apologizing for his outburst.

"Sorry. On land you only have children with your mates. We don't just go around… like that."

"Oh Inu… Konan is my friend, not my mate un. Reproduction and mating are completely different things for the ningyo. We have eggs and children to keep the race alive and make more like us, but we mate to show love and affection un." The blonde blinked up at Inuyasha and gave him a meek smile. "I'm… I'm sorry if it upsets you that I became a father. I… I couldn't help myself… but I didn't meant to make you upset un."

"It's ok…. So wait. You're saying that you only 'reproduced'… but didn't 'mate'." The hanyou started up their walk again, pressing gently on Deidara's back to move him along. "So... have you mated with anyone else, other than me?"

Deidara looked down at the moss under his feet, smiling bashfully before shaking his head slowly.

"In the ningyo culture, mates are for life un. I've never had a mate before, but… well it's not like I hadn't thought of it before… I just wanted to make sure I made the right choice un." He adjusted the dun cloak around his body, pulling it a little more snuggly around his waist. "Well I guess with you it wasn't much of a choice, but I loved you already, so that's fine un."

Suddenly the leader changed their direction, steering their path to back-track and walk towards their start.

"Well no you weren't given much choice. But how about this… let's pretend none of that happened and we can start fresh? That way you can choose if you want to or not." Of course Inuyasha only said this with the almost certain thought that the invitation would be accepted without question.

"Well… it's not that simple un… it's a hormone thing… it's like your essence has been written in my brain un… and it can't be erased. Does that make any sense un?" He smiled apologetically up at the hanyou and squeezed Inuyasha's hand in his own, though he admitted to himself that if it had been his choice, he would have chosen Inuyasha anyway.

"Hm… I think so. Then the best I can do is to let you choose what we do now. We can go inland more and I show you more stuff… or if you really want to we can… have more… you know." The blonde raised his eyebrow, warning the man not to use human slang once more. "… we can mate some more."

At that the ningyo's lips stretched into a wide grin and he wrapped his arms firmly around Inuyasha's bicep.

"Which way to the ocean un?" he purred, the second option clearly appealing to him far more greatly. "I don't need to see more humans, I just need to see you un."

And with that, they were off heading back to their travel's beginning to couple again on the shore, passing another day together as two enigmas of the world.

As the day grew later and the skies grew tinted with navy, it seemed even two and a half hours of on-and-off spurts of copulation weren't enough for the blonde and he got a notion in his head that he wanted to connect with the hanyou in a different way. He kneeled before his sweating lover and gave his shoulders a tug as he shimmied towards the breaking waves.

"Come on Inuyasha un. I want to mate with you in my true form un! Please un, let's do it like that again. It feels so personal that way un."

It took a moment for Inuyasha to catch his breath and bring his mind back into focus.

"Uuuuhhh ok…. Mmm it's like must all…. huh- over again. Gimmie… a breather. You… go ahead and take off... the thing." The hanyou laid his head back into the soft grains, not minding sand in his hair as long as his sweaty body didn't touch. He remained lying on his outstretched robes as the coi squealed happily and moved away.

But not too far away in the dark of the cove, something lurked undetected by the pair.

Deidara waded out into the bay until he was up to his waste in rolling waves before he reached around to his back and peeled away the seal stuck across his shoulders. For a moment he fainted into the water, collapsing and writhing in the surf while the transformation back passed over him. The transmogrification from human to merman seemed much less painful that the other way around, however, as he was instantly able to breathe once his gills had reformed.

At first the hanyou laid back, not finding a pressing reason to ruin his afterglow so quickly. He figured he'd leave the man to get back to his element and stretch his fins before they met again. But as he listened to the rolling waves, another splash caught his attention and he sat up. Looking over the calm waves it didn't distress him to see a ripple from where he presumed Deidara had entered and splashed about. It was the large, irregular churning of water out further behind the koi that got Inuyasha to his feet and into the water.

The hanyou tilted his head to the side and squinted at the writhing water, trying to catch a glimpse of what could be upsetting the natural flow of the ocean. All of a sudden a hand broke the surface, followed by a thick grey tail breeching in the middle of the churning waters. His heart immediately leapt into his throat and before he could stop himself, the Inuyasha was charging into the surf towards the flailing fins.

With water stirred into a screen of bubbles it was hard to see the struggle, only spotting an arm here and the flash of colored scales there, so with desperation the dog pushed into the fray, immediately getting a slash of claws raked across his face. The sideswipe broke the flesh of his cheek, blood mixed with the tide, and for only a second the waters became calm. But as suddenly a body was surging at him instantly, greedy fangs chomping at the water in hopes for a bite at his face, the hanyou only having enough power and coordination in the dizzying wave to push the attacker off.

The attacker was unlike Deidara in that his entire body was covered with rough, grey scales, like having sandpaper for skin. His beady eyes focused on the newcomer as the shark ningyo gnashed his pointed teeth, trying to sink them into Inuyasha's flesh and tear him apart. Inuyasha gritted his teeth as he gripped at the merman's shoulders, keeping the snapping jaws at arm's length. Bubbles escaped from the half demon's nose and mouth as his lungs began to ache for air, but he dared not break the deadlock he was stuck in. Before he could cave in and make a break for the surface, damn the expense, the shark-man lurched and whirled around, giving the silver-haired mutt a full view of his lover sinking his fangs and claws into the grey ningyo's flank.

Not able to praise his lover with no oxygen the silver-hair desperately punched at the shark-tailed man and managed to batter the enemy enough to break his clutches, kicking as hard as he could to break the surface. But no sooner did he take in the biggest gulp of air he could did a cold hand wrap around his ankle and tangle in his hair, dragging him back down into the thrashing waters. With Deidara now channeling the rage that was Kisame, the other brute of the ningyo pod sought after the hanyou, attempting to first drown him before brutally scouring his naked chest. Having his lungful the mutt could somewhat fight back, plunging his nails into the fight and score his own wounds against the coelacanth merman, however few he actually got past the tough scales.

"Aim for the belly un!" Deidara shouted through bared fangs as he drew his claws to try and fend off the larger merman. No sooner had he said this than viciously sharp teeth sunk into his shoulder, chomping at the fragile flesh and making the blonde shout, thrashing his tail to tear free. A bloom of scarlet leapt from the koi-tail's shoulder as he managed to rip free of Kisame's maw, lashing out with his fingers to dig a clawed thumb into the grey merman's gills.

"You lousy deserting piece of shit!" Kisame snarled through bloody teeth, "We'll drag you back or kill you, whichever comes first!"

Taking the instruction, Inuyasha wedged his hand in-between himself and his opponent before Kakazu tried to counter the attack by forcing their bodies together. In a vain attempt the merman had sunk his claws into the hanyou's back and pulled him close, knowing if their bellies were sealed together his only known weak spot would be covered. However this only served to completely wound him, the half-demon's claws sinking deep into his underbelly with the sheer force of their meeting middles. The ningyo howled through the water, the consistence of the liquid making the noise ring in all ears. Kakazu frantically pushed Inuyasha back, but in doing so the mutt used the space and pulled sharply up, tearing his nails up along the man's torso and spilling his blood into the fray.

The dark-skinned merman doubled over and clutched at his soft belly, glaring over his shoulder at his attacker before wincing and turning tail. Abandoning the fight, Kakuzu fled to get his wound tended to before he bled out; swimming at an awkward gait he tried to keep from flexing his injured muscles. Grinning victoriously, Inuyasha kicked at the water and broke the surface to fill his lungs before plunging under to get back to his lover.

With one less vicious half-fish to worry about, using his newly gained adrenaline the hanyou propelled himself through the sea towards the wrestling mermen, seeing each had a hold on each other. With tails thrashing to gain control the pair rolled with the blonde's fangs clamped into an once scratching hand while the other of Kisame's hand was piercing the tender flesh just above his jaw, the thumb underneath so the hand could grip his jawbone with wicked hold and attempt to pry his mouth off. Inuyasha closed in behind the shark ningyo's back, watching both of Deidara's hands claw at the exposed back furiously. Sinking his own nails in for stability Inuyasha held his breath the best he could as his jaws separated, working fast to sink his own teeth into the foe's already injured gills.

The shark's-man's eyes widened and he held still for a moment, paralyzed by fear of having his gills stripped, like any man would be afraid of having his lungs ripped out. For a moment things seemed to hold still, neither side advancing in the force of his attack until Kisame growled low in his throat.

"Let go of my gills, human, or I'll tear his pretty, little jaw off." To emphasize his point, Kisame tightened his grip on the koi-tail's mandible, causing the blonde to whine, though he still refused to release the larger ningyo's hand.

With water quickly bubbling into his ear canal and the garbled speech from the injured throat of Kisame, Inuyasha barley made out what was being threatened to him, but as soon as the piercing ring of his lover's pain filled his ears he released the spiny gills, the great shark male relaxing slightly. But surprisingly fast for a land creature underwater, Inuyasha replaced his claws into his fresh bite and took his teeth to the threatening hand clamped into Deidara's jaw, biting down hard enough on his metacarpals to destroy his grip and retract from his hold on Deidara, endeavoring to shake the second biter from his hand.

The muscular shark-ningyo snarled furiously and lashed his tail, diving a few more feet underwater in an attempt to scare Inuyasha off of his hand and gills, but when even that failed, the merman's head whirled around. With a crunch that traveled well through the water, Kisame sunk his teeth into the offending hanyou's forearm up to the bone, shaking his jaw a bit and causing blood to spring from the wound like a cloud of red fog.

Inuyasha's screamed as the muscle surrounding his arm was sliced through and ripped savagely, his breath escaping in large rushed of bubbles. He growled and sunk his claws in deeper into the hard gills of the shark, wriggling them inside to cut and slice the unprotected working of his throat. But eventually his air ran out and he spat the hand from his mouth and blew his last bubbles into Deidara's face, desperately motioning upwards after he had caught the koi's attention.

The blonde snarled and put out a hand, shoving his mate up towards the surface but still refusing to relinquish his hold on Kisame's hand. The shark sputtered and choked, blood spewing from his gills every time he circulated water through them. The blue-haired merman looked up as Inuyasha made a hasty retreat towards the surface, snarling as his prey tried to get away and lurching forward only to be yanked backwards by the smaller ningyo pulling on his limb in the opposite direction. With a low, animalistic growl rumbling in his throat Deidara swum downward with the other merman's hand in his jaws, dragging the furious creature away from his recovering mate, trying to buy Inuyasha a moment longer on the surface.

As the mermen fought for ground in their tug-o-war the half-breed swam to the surface, grasping his arm as it gushed into the surrounding water. Just in time his face broke and he was forced again to gulp down as much air as he could, unable to hold himself up with mere leg strength. He bobbed for a few moments before looking down into the water, horrifies to see the men wrestling at the bottom. Thinking carefully the hanyou took his only working arm and started stroking, pulling himself towards the shore.

On the sandy seabed, the two fish wrestled for control of the situation, both knowing that if Deidara gave any slack in his grip, the other would be able to tear free and he would be on the injured hanyou in a heartbeat. With this heavy in his mind, the blonde kept his jaw clamped down on Kisame's hand until his mandible ached and still his teeth stayed imbedded in the limb. With more muscle mass and sheer weight on his side, it wasn't long after the pair hit the bottom that the shark-ningyo was able to wrestle the Deidara onto his back, using all the force of his thick tail to keep the koi in place, pinning him into the sand. When he was sure he could prevent the younger merman's escape, Kisame again dug his claws into the blonde's jaw trying to pry his mouth open again.

"I'll keep my promise to that filthy human," he snarled, bearing his pointed teeth menacingly at his enemy. "I'll tear your jaw from your skull and kill you! I'll even spare Konan the heartache and tell her it was the only part of you we were able to recover after that land-beast was finished with you!"

Just as the blonde's fangs began to slip forcefully from their bite, a brilliant light glimmered from the glassy surface. As all fish and ningyo knew, this was common with the view of the sun from underwater, but Deidara's pupils constricted as the light became blinding, and in a bout of fear he pulled his limbs in to be shielded by his foe, easily hiding behind Kisame's mass. To the tiger shark's surprise, the light wrapped around him and was in fact tangible. He howled as the large line of energy sliced across his back, making him buck and thrash against the attack. The younger merman took this to his advantage and clawed at the other's face, distracting him enough to swim a good distance away. As he exited Kisame's reach he looked up to view this other potential attacker. But as he smiled through his wounded jaw he saw only the silhouette of his lover, the sun outlining him and an enormous sword he held in his uninjured hand.

Moving his tail quickly, the blonde rocketed towards the surface, but stopped halfway, looking over his shoulder to see the light of his lover's strength wearing off and revealing Kisame to be covered from head to tail in deep lacerations. The shark heaved through his gills as if trying to catch a dose of oxygen through all his own blood that clouded the water. Clutching his flank, as it was the only place on his body where his hands could reach to try and clot the bleeding, Kisame glowered defiantly up at the younger merman, as if daring him to come a bit within the range of his jaws.

"_Boil in hell_" the shark finally snarled before turning and making a slow retreat as if limping underwater.

With the threat fleeing, the hanyou relaxed and kicked to the top once more, bringing his sword hand over to press against his flowing wound, trying to stop his bleeding underwater in vain. He let go of his held breath as he tastes oxygen again, letting his feet float up so that he could lay lazily on his back.

Pressing his palm against his bitten shoulder, the blonde merman swam in towards his mate until he floated by the hanyou's side as he drifted on the rolling waves towards the beach. Deidara nudged the hanyou's flank, afraid to touch his wounded forearm but still determined to make sure his lover was going to be alright. Carefully the koi-tail nudged Inuyasha, pushing him gently towards the shore.

He flinched at the touch, not knowing if the cold touch was another sea demon trying to drag him to his death at the bottom of the ocean. But he looked to see that beautiful head of golden hair bobbing beside him and smiled weakly. He slowly rolled himself over in the calm waters, slinging his good arm over his love and allowing him to swim him to shore, the lazy flips of the koi's tail being much more effective than the hard kicks of his human feet.

Not daring to go ashore himself yet, the blonde gave his mate one final push, propelling him ashore with the waves. The blonde looked on as the hanyou clambered ashore and reached out for his scarlet robe, wrapping the clothe around his bitten forearm and sopping up the blood. Deidara poked his head above the water holding his own shoulder and watching the silver-haired half demon from the shallows just off the continental shelf where the waves began to break.

It was one thing to pull on his hakama on with one hand, but another to tie his obi back into place. The knot was sloppy, but as he stood his pants did not fall and that was good enough. His legs slightly sore from his swims from death, Inuyasha wobbled over to the breaking waves were Deidara lie, sitting himself in the damp sand to share in his pain.

"So those fish… friends of yours?"

The blonde nodded slowly, looking back to the ocean over his shoulder before blinking up at the hanyou as if to show he'd love to explain it all, but he still couldn't speak above the water if he wanted. Inuyasha nodded that he understood, but only crawled in far enough for his head to be underwater, letting his body we washed over by the tide. He could see Deidara fine, his body laid out in the shallows floating amongst the churning sand.

"Members of my pod un… must have been trying to take me back… said they were taking me back to Konan." The blonde looked away, as if apprehensive that yet another ningyo from his clan might be approaching from the churning depths. "Maybe it would be best if I… got out of the water un. I… I don't want them to take me away from you un." The blonde crawled along the sandy bottom towards his mate, his hair flowing in even accord with the tides.

As the merman's face came into his reach, the hanyou blew bubbles in a sigh and pressed the tip of his nose to the others. Nodding upward, Inuyasha brought Deidara to air with him, leaning himself on his only good arm.

"Do they need you? I know you want to stay, but… does she need you? I mean she is having your kid, and what not…"

Dipping his head underwater and tugging his mate with him the way they had grown accustomed to doing, Deidara replied carefully.

"Konan's got plenty of other males in our pod who can care for her and the child un. Why should the burden fall to me?" The blonde looked away for a moment before speaking again. "Konan only wants me to be alpha anyway un… The role of pod leader is a two-part job, and with Pein gone, she'll be looking for someone to fill his position as her mate. It seems logical since I fertilized her egg, but I… I already have a mate un." The koi blinked up at Inuyasha his eyes pleading for the half demon to let him stay.

Inuyasha smiled and leaned in, inviting his mate to reassure him physically, and sure enough he did. The less shaken man took his lover's face into his hands and pressed their lips together, giggling when the hanyou playfully blew bubbles in his face. They tickled as the floated over his cheeks and popped at the surface, but with the distraction he hadn't noticed Inuyasha leaving. Poking his head up, the ningyo saw the mutt's retreat, but only to his robes where he fished around the sleeves for what he hoped were his magic supplies.

The blonde merman circled in the surf for a while until he could see that Inuyasha had drawn up several copies of the transformation seal. When all things for the ritual were laid out on the shore, Deidara braved the rolling waves and rode one up the beach, dragging his belly the rest of the way up the sand until he lay in front of his mate again. Like second nature, the Ningyo assumed the transformation position with his stomach in the sand and his long hair away from his shoulders, keeping his gills still so that he wouldn't feel as if he was suffocating quite yet.

The process was quick as the merman's body took to the seal's power, mutating his body until he turned from fish to mammal. He whimpered quietly while Inuyasha offered his support, rubbing the man's shoulder as his body contorted, shriveled and sprouted new legs until his fresh skin was flawless and pink.

When finally Inuyasha gave his lips a puff and filled his lungs with his first breath, the merman gasped and groaned, his every muscle seeming to ache from the transmogrification while his shoulder screamed, dribbling blood from the perfect set of teeth marks. As he rolled onto his back, Deidara grabbed at his shoulder, wishing for a moment that he could soak the wound in seawater again, preferring the sting of salt to the ach of slow bleeding.

Seeing the blood seep past the tattered flesh, Inuyasha crouched behind Deidara as he sat up, holding his arms in place. Tenderly he kissed the bite mark and licked away was trailed down his tanned skin, then held his hand over the wound and pressed gently, ignoring the sharp hiss from the koi.

"Ouch… nnnn…" the blonde grumbled, looking back at his mate with an unhappy expression on his face. "Master Sasori uses urchin quills and a poultice of kelp to stop bleeding un. It doesn't heal very pretty," he paused, lifting his good arm to show several scars marked with little dimples where the spines had been used to keep the skin pinched together, "but it keeps the wound together un."

"Well for something like this, and mine too," the hanyou glanced at his own limp arm that hung uselessly beside him, "we probably need sewing up. We'll have to go a ways, but if you can make it old Lady Kaede can patch us up… and maybe find a way for you to stay... if you want."

"I'd never be welcome back in the bay after that un," the ningyo sighed, letting his head bow slightly, "I think I'll be staying on land for good unless you'd rather relocate to another shore with me un…" Deidara gave the hanyou a smile that told him the idea had little hope and that becoming land-bound would most likely be the only end for him.

"Kid… I'd rather feel your warmth next to me at night, but if you want to live in the water, that's ok. I'm willing to go anywhere with you…" To prove himself the hanyou kissed beside the tender wound and rubbed the blonde's flanks lovingly. "But right now I have to get you healed, and that old witch will make it faster. So put on the cloak and the pants. She's like a hundred and her old heart can't stand the sight of an amazing, naked man."

With a sigh the ningyo leaned back and looked up at his partner's golden eyes, giving him a weak smile though he tried to find happiness and humor through the pain all over his body. "Why is it human customs are so odd and private un? You behave as if the males and the females must be segregated… perhaps I'll never understand it fully un." He closed his eyes and snorted a weak laugh through his nose. "Alright, now bring me that damned hakama un."

With injuries galore it was a miracle that the pair dressed themselves, but eventually both men sported pants. Somehow Inuyasha got one sleeve on of his inner robe, but gave up on his injured limb. Deidara gently draped the protective Fire Rat garment over the hanyou's shoulders like a cloak, only slightly leaning on him as they left the beach like two wounded soldiers heading for home.

And in a way they were, for the day drew to a close when they reached the quaint village of the priestess Kaede. They were treated and rested in her shack while their last few days were retold to the old woman, her knowledge of the mystical world just yearning to be expanded. Several times she inspected the blonde's seal, a look of awe never leaving her tired face.

After a few days of rest and recuperation, the deep gouges had begun to close up and scar over with proper stitching and herbal treatment. To pass the time, Inuyasha poured himself into the ancient scroll Kaede had gifted to him, searching the massive stretch of parchment for some more permanent solution to Deidara's current condition. Though the merman could spend his life avoiding water, that was no way to live; hiding from the rain and sponging himself clean so as not to moisten the sutra across his back. After nearly two days of reading through every passage, the blonde hanging over his good side, Inuyasha eventually found a cliff note that read very promisingly. The note was at the tail end of the scroll, written by the same man who had developed the original sutra that was responsible for Deidara's current state. It explained how through experimenting with the seal itself, he had discovered that the spell works just the same with a permanent effect if the markings are inscribed onto the flesh by burning ink into the skin.

With healed bodies and reenergized spirits, the duo set out in search of this treasure, working down every lead towards anyone that could masterfully complete this ritual. Several times the deadly waters threatened to dampen Deidara's sacred seal, whether from rain or other outside forces, and only once was the scrap replaced. The procedure was risky, but with the right timing the ningyo lived to search on. But after almost a month, in the uncharted lands of mountain valley, they found an old turtle demon, having proof of the tattoo's effectiveness with once burned into his own skin. The hermit was human, his shell still secure around his body, but only in vanity and not necessity.

The old creature agreed to help the young couple and spent that very night mixing the ink and preparing a cast-iron barb. The next day was dedicated to an act of pure devotion as the old demon dipped the red-hot tip of the iron rod into the ink and, inch by painful inch, traced over the seal. All the while Deidara tried his best to conceal his pain, but when he swallowed his screams, they escaped through his eyes. He was given a piece of wood to bite on and alleviate some of the agony, but the only thing that kept him still through the torture was Inuyasha's hand in his, squeezing at the ningyo's trembling palm until the last symbol had been permanently etched into his flesh.

The remnants of the old sutra were peeled away, revealing a perfect pattern of twisted scabs and angry, red skin. Though with time the burns healed and the swelling diminished, the black tattoo remained on his shoulders through wet and dry. Deidara held a piece of remorse in his heart, knowing that now that his transmogrification was permanent, he would never be a ningyo again; he would never swim with a long, beautiful tail in the crystalline brine of the Sagami Bay, he would never speak underwater with his old friends, he would never see the alcove he had once called home again. But somehow, he was okay with things being as such because the tradeoff was well worth the price. He had fallen in love with a man of the surface world and as destiny would have it, he would spend his life on solid land, every day being a testament to his devotion.


End file.
